Critical Thinking for Initial Incident Command 2019

On a structure fire the initial incident commander is faced with the expectation of making critical decisions in a compressed time frame. CRITICAL THINKING for the INITIAL ICuses Bloom’s Taxonomy and Costas’ Levels of Intellectual Functioning methodology in addressing Critical Thinking as applied to the Initial IC when dealing with structure fires.

We also look at the components and relationship of ‘Criteria Based Decision Making” with “Recognition Primed Decision Making” as they apply to fire ground decisions. Students will understand which criteria are critical and how to utilize these criteria in making effective decisions. Concepts involving Reading Smoke, Fire Dynamics, and Building Construction are tied together in an effective way that will improve the students’ confidence in size-up and action planning.

Subjects that will also be covered include:

·         Applying Critical Thinking to Strategic and Tactical Priorities

·         Pitfalls in Decision Making

This 16-hour class is designed for the Initial Incident Commander, whether the student is a Company Officer or Response Chief.In this highly interactive course the student can expect to develop confidence in critical decision-making and incident size-up skills. The student will see about 100 structure fires in this course.

 Prerequisites: None