Flawed decision-making can kill you. We believe ourselves to be different from the rest of the world. But we aren’t. We need to learn how to think, act and make decisions that keep us safe on the fireground.
Experience has shown that there are three identifiable causes of firefighter casualties:
- Human errors
- Poor decision-making
- Flawed situational awareness
According to my friend Dr. Richard Gassaway, flawed situational awareness is the most important one on the list. We often do not know how to teach people how to think. You cannot see a thought. I have looked, but I have never seen a thought floating out there in midair. But you can see the results of a poor thought.
Building awareness
Following are some important thoughts and tasks to incorporate into your organizational operation if you are to succeed in creating situational awareness within your department. It’s easiest to think about these clue and cues on different levels, so you can build your awareness level for the tasks at hand.
Level 1: The first level focuses on simply paying attention to your current situation—perception. In other words, what is happening in the world around you? What do you see (or not see)? What do you hear (or not hear)? These are critical skills that must be taught and then mastered by all members. I have long taught of the need to become a better listener.
Level 2: Take the cues and clues from Level 1 and start piecing together the parts of the puzzle so you can get a fuller picture of the scene. It is this puzzle-solving process that far too many people find hard to accomplish. It requires a conscious effort to bring all the parts of a given situation together in a recognizable and understandable format. Comprehension is a key to the achievement of proper awareness. You must understand what is going on around you. You cannot sneak up on the future. You must understand it and then consciously prepare for it.
Level 3: After a thorough analysis of the world around you and your organization, you will then be properly equipped to better predict the future events that you and your organization may well face based upon the facts that you have uncovered in Levels 1 and 2.
Primal trip wires for danger
Flawed attention is a real problem. You can end up in a serious situation if you are unable to pay attention to the world around you—or if your attention is on the wrong things.
Loud colors, noises and situations draw attention. Bright things draw attention. Moving elements draw attention. Things moving toward you create greater attention. Slow and gradual changes are often missed because you are concentrating on the loud and obvious things around you. Attention is often drawn to things perceived as threatening—but the threatening thing may not be the problem.
Short-term memory has a limited capacity, typically being able to handle five to seven pieces of unrelated information. How many facts might you run into on a given day? You will face far more than seven.
Apply this to the fireground: Did your people see what they needed to see? What were the clues and cues that things were going bad? If they saw the cues and clues, did they understand them? If they understood them, did they act on them? What were they seeking to do when things went bad? These are all critical questions to ask.
You will need to take notes on what is occurring. It is the reviewing of these notes that will ultimately allow you to prepare for the future. It is your reviewing of these notes that will enhance your situational awareness.
Research suggests that first responders rarely realize they are losing their situational awareness. It happens without them noticing. That is why it is critical for you to develop an understanding of what situational awareness is, how it works, and how you should use it to improve your fire department.
Pay it forward
Let me close by reminding you of the critical importance of paying it forward. Someone trained you. Someone coached you. And hopefully someone mentored you. You owe a duty to your department and your fellow firefighters to create the next generation of well-trained and situationally aware firefighters. To do any less is not acceptable.
