Fireground Command Decision Making

Issues with situational awareness have been implicated in numerous firefighter near-miss and line-of-duty death reports. As the person responsible for sizing up the fire situation and making decisions that impact firefighter safety, the commander must be able to effectively manage the barriers that can impact his or her situation awareness.

In this book, Dr. Gasaway shares the findings of his extensive research of fireground command decision making and what he discovered about the barriers that impact a fireground commander’s situation awareness. He discusses 116 potential barriers to a fireground commander’s situation awareness and provides the reader with recommendations for reducing the impact of the most challenging situational awareness barriers. He also presents 10 best practices to ensure the development and maintenance of strong situational awareness needed to make quality decisions on the fireground.