SAMatters Radio artwork

SAMatters Radio

418 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 46 ratings

The mission of the Situational Awareness Matters! Radio Show is to help you see the bad things coming... in time to avoid bad outcomes by improving your understanding of human factors, situational awareness and decision making under stress. Listen and learn from hundreds of incredible interviews with first responders who survived near-miss events.

Education Science firedepartment safety firefighting firstresponder humanfactors incidentcommand situationalawareness
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Episodes

SAM Special Episode 002 | Near Miss Expert Panel Discussion at FRI in Dallas

August 22, 2014 11:00 - 1 hour - 78.4 MB

This episode is a recording of a near-miss panel discussion held at Fire-Rescue International in Dallas, Texas. The panel, consisting of Chief Josh Waldo (Oakridge, TN), Training Officer Andrew Beck (Mandan, ND) and myself discuss  three near events, including:   1.A live training burn near-miss involving the crazing of a facepiece. 2.A haz-mat call near-miss involving a Freon leak. 3.An EMS call near-miss involving a patient with weapons   You can visit them at www.FirefighterNearMiss...

SAM 016 | Impact of Fatigue on Situational Awareness

August 18, 2014 11:00 - 19 minutes - 18.2 MB

The SAMatters mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to avoid bad outcomes.   On this episode….   1. We will look at the hot button issue of first responder fatigue. 2. We will review a near-miss report that emphasizes the importance of having a designated safety officer. 3. And I will discuss   a community question that addresses which, among the more than 100 situational awareness barriers, is the most pervasive.   Situational Awareness Matters! website ...

SAM 015 | Radio Traffic Can Impact Situational Awareness

August 11, 2014 13:06 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MB

The SAMatters mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to avoid bad outcomes.   On this episode….  1.We’ll discuss how radio traffic can impact situational awareness.  2.I’ll share a near-miss incident where a firefighter fell through an open crawl space hatch in a floor… left open by other firefighters.  3.Finally, I will answer one of the most often asked questions I receive… what does it cost to host a Situational Awareness Matters Tour Stop Event?   Situat...

SAM 014 | Interview with Louisiana State Fire Training Director Dave Casey

August 02, 2014 14:36 - 55 minutes - 50.5 MB

On this episode I interview Dave Casey, Director of the Louisiana State Fire & Emergency Training Institute on the need for realistic first responder training. During the interview, Dave shared: 1.The need to turn off the PowerPoint, get out of the classroom, and into the field for hands-on training.  2.Some of the challenges associated with electronic learning. 3.The benefits of demonstrating skills during scenario-based evolutions.  4.The need to perform high fidelity training, combini...

SAM 013 | Training for Failure

July 25, 2014 11:00 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MB

  Hello and welcome to episode 013 of the Situational Awareness Matters radio show. I am your host, Rich Gasaway.       The purpose of this show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments.       The SAMatters mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to avoid bad outcomes.       EPISODE OUTLINE       1.In the feature segment we’ll talk about training for fail...

SAM 012 | Interview with Fire Chief Alan Predmore - Buckley (WA) Fire Department

July 18, 2014 11:00 - 40 minutes - 37 MB

Hello and welcome to episode 12 of the Situational Awareness Matters radio show. I am your host, Rich Gasaway.   The purpose of this show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments.   The SAMatters mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to avoid bad outcomes.   On this episode I had the pleasure of interviewing Alan Predmore, the fire chief in Buckley, Washington. I ...

SAM 011 | Interview with Seattle Fire Department Training Chief Phil Jose

July 11, 2014 11:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MB

On this episode I had the opportunity to tour the Seattle Fire Department training facility and I sat down and talked with Phil Jose, the training chief for the Seattle Fire Department. During the interview, Chief Jose shared some of the things he is focused on to improve the situational awareness and decision making abilities of Seattle firefighters including:   1.Conducting Post Incident Analyses (PIA) of major fire incidents, defined as one that results in a firefighter injury, a civili...

SAM 010 | Interview with Jack Sullivan - Responder Safety Institute

July 10, 2014 23:34 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MB

On this episode I interview Jack Sullivan, Director of Training for the Responder Safety Institute. The mission of the Institute is to reduce highway incidents involving first responders and to minimize the impact of responders who are involved in these incidents.   Our discussion was recorded at the National Volunteer Fire Council Summit in Myrtle Beach where Jack was presenting on highway incident safety and I was presenting program on Thirty deadly situational awareness barriers.   Th...

SAM 009 | Interview with Captain John Wright - Close Call Survivor

June 27, 2014 23:00 - 1 hour - 56.1 MB

On this episode we walk with Captain John Wright from the Flower Mound (Texas) Fire Department. Captain Wright survived an extremely close call while operating as an interior search crew at a residential dwelling fire.   On June 17, 2011 the Flower Mound Fire Department along with several mutual aid companies responded to a residential structure fire.  During the incident, Captain Wright and Firefighter Trujillo became overrun by fire on the second floor.  The rapidly increasing fire disor...

SAM 008| Another false alarm - A tale of complacency

June 20, 2014 23:00 - 18 minutes - 17.3 MB

  In episode 2, I spoke a little bit about complacency. The feedback was awesome, thank you everyone for that.   1. In this episode I will continue on that topic and share a how a false alarm mindset can lead to complacency.   2. In the near-miss report we will share an incident where complacency caused a firefighter to fall through a weakened floor at a residential dwelling fire.   3. And in the question/answer segment, we will explore why the “Blind Search” drill may be a set-up for...

SAM Special Episode 001 | International Fire EMS Safety & Health Week

June 16, 2014 23:00 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MB

  On this episode we celebrate the International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week. My guest is Ryan Pennington, webmaster at Views from the Jumpseat and host of Jumpseat Radio. We are talking about the International Fire and EMS Safety and Health Week and its theme: Train like you fight!   INFORMATION   If you are interested in attending a live event, you can check out the Situational Awareness Matters Tour Stop schedule at: SAMatters.com. Click on the Program and Keynotes tab just below...

SAM 007 | Captain Jeff Bowen Line of Duty Death

June 13, 2014 23:00 - 18 minutes - 16.5 MB

Hello and welcome to episode 7 of the Situational Awareness Matters radio show. I’m your host, Rich Gasaway. The purpose of this show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high stress, high consequence environments. Our mission is simple… To help you see the bad things coming… in time to prevent bad outcomes.     I am broadcasting to you today from my Situational Awareness Matters Get in the Loop Tour Stop in Erwin, Tennessee where I...

SAM 006 | Wayne Williams Interview on safety and situational awareness

June 06, 2014 23:00 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MB

  On this episode we’ll talk 1. Briefly about the myth of multitasking 2. We’ll listen to an interview I recorded with a wildland firefighting safety officer with 40 years of experience on the line. 1. Developing the mindset of a Just Culture in the wildland firefighting community. 2. Why a culture of compliance won’t work. 3. How age brought wisdom and helped Wayne realize the need for instant gratification was far less important than the goal to bring everyone home in one piece. 4. ...

SAM 005 | Emotions, decision making and situational awareness

May 30, 2014 23:00 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MB

  On this episode we’ll talk about… 1. The role of emotions in decision making. 2. I’ll share a report about a  first responder who had a near-miss with a chain saw. 3. And we’ll talk about why so few first responders and industrial workers are being taught about situational awareness.   FEATURE TOPIC How you decide to do something… or not do something is a complex process that involves multiple brain regions. Are decisions made with the rational brain or the intuitive brain? The answ...

SAM 004| The 360 degree size up role in situational awareness

May 23, 2014 23:00 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MB

  On this episode we’ll talk about…     1. The importance of completing a 360 degree size-up.     2. We’ll share a near-miss event where a combination of inexperience, freelancing, and assumptions led to a loss of accountability.     3. And we’ll address a community member’s question about how to develop expert knowledge in younger officers who are seeing less fires.     FEATURE TOPIC     Situational awareness starts with capturing clues and cues in your environment. It’s rea...

SAM 003 | Situational Awareness - Clues and Cues

May 16, 2014 23:00 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MB

  On this episode we’ll talk about…   1.Positive and negative clues and cues that form situational awareness.   2.We will share a near-miss event where a first responder was nearly run over by a fire department command vehicle.   3.And we will address a dilemma where a listener shares his concern about his department training officer and the seemingly lack of interest in conducting mayday and rapid intervention training because, as the listener writes… He thinks it will never happen h...

SAM 002 | Complacency

May 09, 2014 23:00 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MB

  On this episode we’ll talk about…   1.Habits, routines and complacency.   2.We will look at a near-miss event where tunnel vision and complacency may have flawed situational awareness.   3.And we will address a question from an SAMatters community member about how to make mayday training more realistic.   FEATURE TOPIC   We all know we have habits. Some of them are good habits. And some of them are…well… not so good. The less often talked about cousin of a habit is a routine. Ha...

SAM 001 | Defining and explaining situational awareness

May 02, 2014 23:00 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MB

Welcome to the first episode of the Situational Awareness Matters! Radio show.   And since this is the first episode I thought it would be appropriate to share with you how the back story of how Situational Awareness Matters got started.   You will also be provided with a good working definition for situational awareness and explanation as to why it is so darn important to the process of making good decisions.   The focus of this show is to improve situational awareness and decision ma...

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