In all branches of emergency response, there are common themes and definitions that are held to be universal. In recent years, one of these terms has been situational awareness. Whether you are a police officer on patrol, an EMT at a scene or a firefighter at an incident, situational awareness has been an integral part of our training. Situational awareness is closely tied to scene safety. But is this enough? Have we lost focus of something more? Can simply being “aware” of something really make us safe? Can we do more to ensure that our members can function with certain information? Situational awareness is only a part of the equation when it comes to helping firefighters or other responders survive critical changes in incident dynamics, regardless of the location or type of incident faced.
Situational awareness defined
Let’s begin with a basic definition of situational awareness. Once we define the term, we can determine if that level of recognition is sufficient or if we need to delve more deeply into our circumstances. Situational awareness means that responders are constantly surveying their incident to alert themselves and others to current and possibly changing circumstances. As firefighters and fire officers, especially during interior operations at working fires, we are taught to “keep our heads on a swivel.” This, in effect, means we must be constantly looking for changes in our environment.
But insofar as our training to be situationally aware, that is where the dialogue generally stops. For example, during search and rescue operations, crewmembers should be “aware” of increasing heat and decreasing visibility. The crewmembers may even acknowledge these environmental condition changes to each other. So, now our crew is aware of deteriorating conditions in the building they are searching, but what’s next? Do they update the incident commander or operations chief? Do they push forward? Do they recognize the potential for flashover and retreat from the area? There are many options facing our search team, and their very survival is more dependent on the interpretation of what they are experiencing, rather than the awareness alone.
A step further—situational understanding
The next step in this process is critical. We need to train our firefighters to understand what these deteriorating conditions mean. Crewmembers (and especially officers) need to be trained to understand the consequences of what they are seeing and experiencing. They need to develop the skills to take the information from a fluid situation, interpret that new information, assess the consequences of the changes they have observed, and develop a new strategy or tactic to counter their original plan. This is situational understanding.
Awareness is only half of the equation. Consider hazmat training. Many states offer awareness training, but is that what first responders need to successfully mitigate an incident? No, they also need the next step, operations training in which students learn defensive operations and techniques. Situational awareness would be akin to awareness training, and situational understanding would be akin to operations training.
For example, a crew is dispatched to a motor vehicle accident with ejection and injuries. The first-arriving engine reports one patient in the roadway, two vehicles involved with one of them, a pickup truck, on its side. There is a visible fog or presence of steam. Crewmembers are “aware” of an ejected victim and overturned vehicle. They work to stabilize the victim and vehicle while checking for additional victims. A crewmember then observes a large tank emitting a vapor from the side of the overturned pickup truck. Now they are “aware” of an issue. A closer inspection reveals a label indicating that a chemical is present. They are now “situationally aware.” But are they in the position of understanding what this means? Do they have resources available to them to assist them in development of new strategies and tactics based upon the new development, or change in incident dynamics? Are they in danger? Does this understanding of the presence of hazardous materials necessitate an evacuation, and if so, to what extent? If we change the scenario to the search and rescue example, would the crew be capable of interpreting the information they observed?
The modern firefighter
Years ago, society and our young firefighters were noticeably different. The pre-technology generation was adept at using their imagination and was far more physically active. They developed problem-solving skills that were practiced on a regular basis. For example, many of us looked forward to our first car. We had very little money to acquire the car, and none to pay the local mechanic to troubleshoot and repair it when we had issues. So, out of necessity, we learned how to diagnose mechanical issues and make the repairs ourselves. This reduced the cost of ownership dramatically. The cars of today, however, are all computer-controlled. We now go to the dealer or mechanic, who plugs in a computer that reports what is wrong. This removes the owner from the equation, and also serves to lessen the problem-solving skills of the mechanic.
My generation came home from school and went outside to play until we were called in for dinner. We made up games, modified equipment to suit our needs, such as broomsticks for bats and cardboard for bases to play stickball. Today, many children are drawn to video games and social media sites. While they are developing very strong fingers and thumbs, their problem-solving skills are used in different ways, and the game essentially creates the imaginative element for the user.
While working as a fire instructor at a county fire academy, the students were given a scenario, a strategy and a tactic. My colleagues and I noticed that the students had problems if the scenarios they were given went off script. They would freeze up, ask one another, and then raise their hands to seek guidance. When discussing vertical ventilation, for example, I asked the students how to vent the roof. All generally decide to use a power saw. When I pushed and said the saw would not start so they would need a new tactic, they were at a loss. “But we were taught to use a power saw,” they said. I would press further, and they would say they’d work to find a power saw that starts. It never occurred to them to use an axe. We need to work on problem-solving skills with all firefighters. Situational understanding IS problem-solving.
Changing the culture
The fire service has seen tremendous advances in technology to make our efforts as safe as possible. We enjoy better turnout gear, SCBA, thermal imaging cameras (TICs), etc. But what has all of this technology done to our problem-solving skills? They have eroded them to unsafe levels. We need not worry about air consumption since we have heads-up displays, audible and vibrating alerts to warn us. If we get lost, we have PASS devices and maybe even a pack-locator system, along with a rapid-intervention team. We can rely on the TIC instead of remembering search pattern basics. The examples go on and on.
Technology is a great thing, but we need to get back to training and teaching problem-solving skills to our members. Don’t forget, as firefighters and officers, we are by definition professional problem-solvers. Someone has a problem beyond their coping abilities, and they call 9-1-1. We are dispatched to investigate, assess and solve their problem, whatever its nature. This is truly the root of our job. We have gotten away from our roots. We need to take a step back in order to move forward. We must stress the concept of situational understanding to our members. We cannot stop at situational awareness alone.
There are many types of training, and an often-overlooked technique is discussion. Changing our culture can be addressed at very little cost. We need to sit down and discuss scenarios. During the discussion, inject a change in circumstances that would or should be noted. Test each other on the interpretation of the new information. Do we have policies or procedures to address the change? Are there multiple strategies and tactics that may be utilized to maintain a safe environment for our crews? We often find ourselves sitting at the station just talking. We need to take the time to put in the work to hone our problem-solving skills. We can learn a great deal about each other during scenario training. Officers may choose to be a part of the discussion or may choose to moderate. Either way, we can rediscover or introduce practical problem-solving skills to our members.
In sum
Developing situational awareness skills in our firefighters is a great idea, but this concept alone falls short. Being aware does not train us how to interpret or understand what we are actually observing. Consider situational understanding to be the next logical step in the training process. This concept can serve as the operational training component. Once we have held discussions about scenario training, we can advance to actual hands-on scenario training.
The goal of training is to get better and safer with respect to the topic that is being taught. We should not stop by training members to observe changing environmental or scene conditions. We need to condition our members to break down and understand the potential negative impact of the observed changes. We need to train our personnel to be prepared in the event of failure of the technologies they rely on.
Murphy’s Law says whatever can go wrong will go wrong. We need to recognize this during training, and not try to develop problem-solving skills while under fire. Most maydays and line-of-duty death incidents are predictable and often preventable. Training for situational understanding can work to lessen the potential negative impact of observed incident dynamics.
We should never second guess ourselves because we did not provide our firefighters with the best training and problem-solving skills. We need to evolve as an industry and become more proactive than reactive. Lives may depend on it.
