Go shopping or browsing for IT devices and you will find a great deal of them tout the ability of their product to allow the user to multi-task.  Their suggestion is that multi-tasking is a normal function of the human being and their product will help you do it better. This buzz-word has been around for a long time.  It started in the mid 1960’s when computer processing was being developed and the sales pitch for the computer was that multiple tasks could be performed at the same time.  That concept bled over to tasks performed by human beings and when the economy was challenging, employees were encouraged to multi-task.

The multi-tasking concept has spread to all aspects of our lives.  Have you ever been sitting at a stop light when the car in front of you doesn’t move at the green light because they are still looking down at their phone?  Attempted multi-tasking of driving and reading.  It’s not really working out for motor vehicle safety.

There are articles out recently that discuss something more beneficial than multi-tasking.  Mindfulness training.  This concept suggests mindfulness training is learning to be totally focused on one thing at a time, and the facts that apply to what is being done.  Psychologists studying this concept are saying the process of being present and focusing on one thing, has improved problem solving, reduced errors, decreased stress and improved situational awareness.  These improvements in performance were found in subjects who were both rested and tired.  Driving with your phone put away is an example of mindfulness so you can concentrate on driving and that alone.

The research also suggests that the improvements at work from mindfulness training were also beneficial for subjects in their personal lives.  This training is getting traction in both the public and private sectors.  The military is looking at mindfulness training for troops prior to deployment and as a treatment for PTSD.  

With mindfulness training gaining so much traction and proving to be beneficial in so many professions, how long until the fire service gets involved with a program that could be beneficial to their members?  We train regularly to be proficient and accurate in our jobs, perhaps mindfulness training could be incorporated to help with that goal.  The next time you go shopping or browsing for a class, consider one on mindfulness training.  

Fireground commanders never know when a mayday will occur at an emergency scene. The statistics tell us that it will be at the beginning of an incident, it will involve ride-out or overtime officers, combined with younger inexperienced firefighters or entire crews that don’t work together all that much.

The focus quickly becomes the rescue of the co-worker. Those events have been described as loud, faster than normal events that create anxiety and stress for everyone involved, especially the incident commander. Unusual events tend to draw the attention of everyone at the scene. It’s the fireground version of distracted driving. Everyone is focused on the mayday and that makes sense as we care for the well-being of our co-workers. However, sometimes the obvious (the actual fire itself) is missed, because we are distracted.

In 1972, an Eastern Airlines passenger plane crashed into the everglades killing 101 people on board. It turns out that during the flight, a light bulb for the landing gear had burnt out. The three pilots on the flight deck were so distracted by the malfunctioning light that they did not notice they were in a slow descent. Distracted flying.

In most mayday trainings, instructors take the time to mention that we still need to fight the fire while the mayday rescue activities are being conducted. That is easier said that done, but it is good advice. Helping firefighters and company officers not involved as the rapid intervention team train to fight the fire and not concentrate on the burned out light bulb should be part of every mayday training. It will take some extra effort, but may well be steps we need to take to avoid a second problem on a mayday fireground. As unnerving as a mayday may be, we still need to fly the plane.

A couple of years ago, I started getting the daily paper delivered to my house. I stopped getting it before because the delivery person always threw it under the shrubs and I was tired of digging it out every day. It was a service issue, not a publication or content problem. So here I am today, getting the paper again and I realized the other day, I still have a service issue. Every once in a while, a section of the paper is missing. It is the section with the funny papers and crossword that aren’t being inserted before delivery. This isn’t an earth shattering problem I grant you. I don’t have big issues with the paper, but I have small problems and I notice them. I notice the small things.

This led me to question what small things are being missed in the battalion when we provide service and who is noticing them. If we respond to a medical call and have to move the coffee table, do we put it back when we leave? Do we take time to speak with the home or car owner after the fire is extinguished? If your service provides emergency medical care you know that the number one complaint is a courtesy based complaint. People will complain when they aren’t treated with respect. Most people would guess that it was a medical treatment they complained about, but no, actually it’s how they were treated the generates the most concern, and those complaints usually get tied to a medical issue. It’s a small thing that starts the ball rolling and becomes bigger later on.

Firefighters come to work and check their equipment but fail to enter the SCBA check into the computer. If something bad happens later, a small thing becomes a large problem later. If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen. How about an incident commander who doesn’t fill out a tactical work sheet but runs the fire well. At the end of the fire, someone gets hurt and investigators want to see the worksheet, small things add up.

General Colin Powell wrote in his book, “My American Journey” that during rope training he noticed a small problem with a soldiers connection. The soldier was connected to a rope that wasn’t attached to the helicopter. A small thing in the huey, but a big problem on the other side of the door. Powell was just being thorough and it paid off. Being thorough can pay off for firefighters too.

If we take the time to recognize and correct the small things, later on during the heat of the fire, it won’t be a problem for us, and when people do comment on the fire, it will be about the fire and not the small thing we did or didn’t do. People notice the small things.

A few years ago, the term situational awareness wasn’t used or even recognized by the fire service.  Today, you can ask just about every firefighter what it means, and they will be familiar with the term and the concept.  The ability to determine one’s own safety and look ahead at protecting yourself is invaluable and will help us lower the number of firefighter injuries and deaths that occur each year.

After we protect ourselves, our next step should be the attention to the “other” situational awareness, that is, the safety and well-being of our co-workers.  As an example, consider coordinated attack actions, ventilation and water attack on the fire are timed to occur simultaneously, reducing the danger inside the fire structure.  However it’s more than one example and involves the incident from start to finish.

Take a recent fire in an abandoned hoarder house.  The fire was on the second floor and had a good start.  The windows in the building were open and there was plenty of air for the fire to grow.  The attack crew made the second floor by the only staircase from the rear of the house and were attacking the fire.  The back-up crew was positioned at the top of the stairs.  Unfortunately, things were not getting better.  The fire load was substantial.

Here’s where the incident gets a little dangerous.  The next couple of crews were trying to gain access to the second story.  Their intent was well-meaning, they were an aggressive group trying to help.  The problem was, the stairs were narrow and there was only one flight available to use.  Now there are two companies behind the back-up attack crew.  Had something gone wrong at this point, there was no where for the primary attack crew to go, the egress was bottlenecked.  The supporting crews had lost the awareness of the safety of the first couple of crews. 

If the additional crews would have taken a second and assessed the situational awareness of others, alternatives could have been used, and the staircase would have been available for emergency egress.  Fortunately in this case, it wasn’t necessary for the interior crews to bail-out.  It is a good lesson to discuss and consider.

There is a quote attributed to General George Patton and it goes something like, “No decision is difficult to make if you will get all of the facts.”  The missing fact in the hoarder house fire was that the stairs were the only way out.  Add that fact to the supporting companies considerations and the “other” situational awareness helps make for a safer fire scene.

The Third Bugle is a blog and webpage dedicated to firefighters in battalion chief and company officer positions. There are a significant number of classes and books dedicated to these positions, but experience and sharing experiences can be very useful even to the most experienced firefighter. A shift with out a lesson learned is a lost opportunity.

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