May 23, 2014
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 really quite a simple premise. To capture clues and cues requires seeing or hearing them. At a structure fire, the visual clues and cues occupy a finite environment- the building and the space around the building. I am nothing short of astounded by the number of firefighters telling me they don’t complete a 360° size up of a structure fire before making entry. I was inspired for this podcast topic from two recent accounts shared with me.
Into the basement we went
The first account came to me by way of a firefighter sharing a near-miss event with me following a Mental Management of Emergencies program. She was part of a crew of two that did not complete a 360° size up at a residential dwelling fire. They made entry through the front door and they fell through the floor and were trapped in the basement. As she recounted the details, I was reminded of a similar residential dwelling fire that killed two firefighters in Colerain Township, Ohio. The firefighter I spoke to, and her partner, fared much better as they were rescued and survived.
Getting yelled at for completing a 360° size up
The second account came to me by way of an email I received from a firefighter who offered up the topic for my upcoming situational awareness conference call training program for firefighters on June 19 (see the home page of SAMatters for details). Here’s what he wrote (less the parts I removed to ensure his confidentiality):
At my department the 360 is almost frowned upon. When we catch a job I always have the driver pull past the house to see 3 sides and then I try to do a walk around. It never fails I get yelled at to get in the fire. Now, I LOVE going into burning buildings but having lost a firefighter because he fell through the floor (because nobody did a walk around and saw the basement on fire) I feel a good walk around saves lives. I find myself peer pressured into just going into the fire.
360° size up should be standard practice
I am disappointed with how many fire departments have no written standard requiring a 360° size up. I am even more discouraged when I learn that departments have a standard but it is not practiced. I am appalled when firefighters share with me the practice is discouraged.
There are few things first responders can do to help build the foundation of situational awareness like conducting a proper size up. A 360° size up at a residential dwelling fire allows you to capture and process some very important clues. Not only can you see the conditions from all angles, but you can also observe important clues about construction, exit points and floor plan layouts.
Excuses for not completing a 360° size up
I’ve heard some creative explanations for why a responder would not complete a 360° size up. Included on the list are some obvious (expected) response and some that less obvious (surprising).
1. “The building was too large and it would have taken too much time for me to walk around it.”
2. “There was no access to the back side of the structure.”
3. “We did a three-sided size-up by having the driver pull past the structure.”
4. “I got yelled at by the incident commander for trying to do a 360.”
5. “The next-in crew took our hose line and went in while we’re doing the 360.”
6. “I knew I was supposed to do it but I got distracted by the homeowner talking to me.”
7. “The fire was coming out the front window. I didn’t need to go around back to see the obvious.”
8. “The back yard was fenced in and there was a big dog in the yard.”
9. “There was a victim inside. We didn’t have any time to waste on a 360.”
10. “The second-in company will do the 360.”
The front view and the back view can be VERY different!
I am not here to judge these explanations. Whatever reason offered, it is important to know that failing to complete the size up is a barrier to the formation of situational awareness. As I read the casualty investigation reports where firefighters die in residential dwelling fire, the failure to complete a 360° size up is very often cited as a contributing factor.
Chief Gasaway’s Advice
Develop and implement a standard that requires the completion of a 360° size up. If your department has this standard, ensure it is being practiced. If you find out 360 degree size ups are not being done, start asking why. Expect to hear many of the explanations that have been offered to me.
I acknowledge there may be conditions that make completing a 360° size up difficult, if not impossible. For example, on June 2, 2011 two firefighters were killed in a residential dwelling fire where a 360° size up was not completed. The house was built on the side of a steep hill, making it very difficult to complete the 360. (Click here to access the NIOSH investigation report). An inadequate size up was a contributing factor.
Completing a 360 degree size up is not going to start occurring automatically simply because a standard is developed or an administrator puts a directive. The size up must be built into routines of responders and this gets done through practice and repetition. This includes building the size up into training evolutions. Responders need to be taught what to look and listen for – the clues and cues that are present AND the clues and cues that are absent.
If your department does not complete 360° size ups now it may be engrained in the organization’s culture. Like the examples noted above, if someone fears getting yelled at for doing it, they may not complete the size up. If someone thinks another company is going to take their hose line inside while completing the size up, they may not complete the size up.
Discussions
1. Discuss your department’s cultural norms about completing a 360° size up. If it would be discouraged or there’s a possibility another company would take your hose line, discuss strategies for how the organization can overcome these factors.
2. Discuss a time when a 360° size up was not completed and it caused situational awareness to be flawed. This incident discussed does not have to be one where there was a consequence.
3. Discuss a time when a 360° size up was completed and how it improved situational awareness.
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS NEAR MISS LESSON LEARNED
This lesson comes to us from the Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System, where lessons learned become lessons applied.
CREWS GET MIXED UP AT STRUCTURE FIRE.
#08-0000396
August 22, 2008
I was on the first arriving engine company of a structure fire in a two-story abandoned house. Heavy flame and thick smoke were coming from the Delta Side of the structure. Other companies arrived before my crew deployed into the structure. I took one back-end firefighter with six years of experience and also a rookie with two weeks of experience.
The six-year firefighter and I deployed to the interior Delta Side, first floor, for attack, but only after assigning the two-week firefighter to the exterior doorway to pull hose. After making an initial attack, we backed out of the Delta Side to the exterior. I recovered the two-week firefighter and we went to the truck to exchange air bottles. We re-entered the Alpha Side interior where I once again left the two-week firefighter at the exterior doorway to pull hose and advanced the line with the six-year firefighter.
We were only 6-8’ inside the structure, Alpha Side, and I decided to back out just enough to direct the two-week firefighter on the hoseline behind me. We re-entered the interior to resume the attack. Shortly after re-entry, Command called for a PAR. I tapped the six-year firefighter on the shoulder as he operated the nozzle. I then turned and tapped who I thought was my two-week firefighter on the helmet. I then radioed Scene Command with PAR. Command asked me to verify PAR and I confirmed PAR.
When retreating to the exterior with empty air, I found the firefighter I thought to be my two-week firefighter… only it wasn’t my two-week firefighter. It was a 22- year veteran that had been freelancing. Another crew directed my two-week firefighter to advance with them into the second story interior. When I questioned the two-week firefighter why he followed them, he told me he thought the other crew was me and the six year firefighter because we all look the same. He could not tell us from the other crews because our turnout gear all looks the same.
LESSONS LEARNED
Just because you give an assignment, it doesn’t mean the assignment will be carried out.
Freelancing is dangerous.
Officers should be distinguishable on the fire scene.
You can visit them at www.FirefighterNearMiss.com
And you have experienced or witnessed a near miss and would like to be interviewed on this show, visit my companion site:
Click on the “contact us” link. Thank you, in advance, for sharing your lessons learned so others may live.
INFORMATION
If you’re 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 the header, then click on the “Events Schedule” tab. If I’m in your area, I hope you’ll
consider attending a live event.
If you’re not able to attend a live event, consider signing up for the SAMatters On-Line Academy. The Academy contains videos and articles that cover the same content as a three-day live tour event, delivered in 14 modules you can go through at your own pace, from your own computer. The Academy Plus version of the Academy includes four books that are referenced throughout the Academy. The Plus version is a great bargain because the tuition simply covers the cost of the books… making the Academy free!
Just click on the link below the header on the SAMatters home page titled “On-Line Academy.”
SAMATTERS COMMUNITY QUESTION
This question comes from a Mental Management of Emergencies class held last month on New York.
QUESTION: What can we do to develop the experience level of young officers who may not see as many fires as we saw in the early day of our careers?
ANSWER: The best way to develop experience is through responses to fire incidents. However, as the student noted, the number of fires they are responding to is declining and so are the opportunities for young officers to get experience. The next best thing to real experience is realistic simulations that are created to mimic the real fire conditions and create the same challenges that would be encountered at a real fire. After that, the next best training aids are near-miss reports and line-of-duty death reports where factual data can guild learning about conditions and circumstances that lead to casualties and fatalities. Finally, young officers can benefit from the stories shared by their senior (and retired) members. The more realistic the elaborative the stories (without embellishment of the truth) the more a young officer can learn.
The brain cannot distinguish fact from vividly imagined fiction. So the more realistic these experiences, the more like the experience is to be stored in the brain of the young officer as if it were real.
CLOSING
Thank you for sharing some of your valuable time with me today. I sincerely appreciate your support of my mission.
If you like the show, please go to iTunes, and search for SAMatters Radio and subscribe to the podcast and leaving your feedback and a 5-star review. This will help others find the show.
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Be safe out there. May the peace of the Lord, and strong situational awareness, be with you always.
You’ve been listening to the Situational Awareness Matters Radio show with Dr. Richard B. Gasaway. If you’re interested in learning more about situational awareness, human factors and decision making under stress, visit SAMatters.com. If you’re interested in booking Dr. Gasaway for an upcoming event, visit his personal website at RichGasaway.com
Situational Awareness Matters! website
On-Line Academy
http://www.samatters.com/situational-awareness-matters-academy/
Upcoming Events Schedule
http://www.samatters.com/programs-keynote/eventschedule/
Books and Videos (Store)
http://www.samatters.com/store/
Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System
http://www.firefighternearmiss.com/
Close Call Survivor Website
Contact Rich Gasaway
612-548-4424