Today on Firehouse – Ep. 19: Situational Awareness for Firefighters with Rich Gasaway
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Peter Matthews talks with Dr. Rich Gasaway about what firefighters need to know about situational awareness in 2021. Gasaway, who retired at rank of fire chief after a 30-year career in the fire service, has studied situational awareness impacting firefighting operations that resulted in near-miss, injury and firefighter fatality incidents. The two discuss what firefighters working on today's fireground need to know and how they can avoid becoming a statistic.
Richard Gasaway
Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, CSP is an authority on human factors, situational awareness and the high-risk decision-making processes that are used in high-stress, high-consequence work environments. He served 33 years as a firefighter, EMT-paramedic, company officer, training officer, fire chief and emergency incident commander. Gasaway's doctoral research included the study of cognitive neuroscience to understand how human factors flaw situational awareness and affect high-risk decision-making. He authored six books, and his contributions on situational awareness and decision-making are featured and referenced in more than 400 publications. Gasaway's training programs have been delivered to more than 88,000 students.
Peter Matthews | Editor-in-Chief/Conference Director
Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department.
