The 2022 Firefighter Safety Stand Down, taking place June 19-25, focuses on the importance of situational awareness to help firefighters solve problems, prevent bad outcomes, and make better decisions in high-stress environments.
Developing and maintaining situational awareness is a three-step process that includes:
- Perception: Gathering information about what is happening around you
- Understanding: Making sense of the information you gather
- Prediction: Anticipating future events to prevent bad outcomes
Responders use perception to gather critical clues and cues about the emergency. Some of the information is shared with responders over the radio, some of the information may come from preplans, and some of the information is gathered during the size-up. Think of the information gathered as pieces to a puzzle that responders must assemble. The assembled puzzle pieces form a “picture of understanding” that allows responders to make sense of what is happening.
The responder’s understanding drives the decision-making process. If responders shortcut this process, they may find themselves making decisions before they understand the problem that needs solving. As you can imagine, this can lead to errors in decision-making, flawed tactics and tragic outcomes.