Firefighters and fire officers operate under significant time pressure in a high-stake environment with vague or shifting goals, imperfect information, and dynamic conditions. Decision-making in this context can be described as naturalistic decision-making. In the 1980s Dr. Gary Klein developed the recognition primed decision-making model based in large part the study of fireground commanders. For incident commanders recognizing dynamic incident conditions result in four byproducts: Relevant Cues, Expectancies, Plausible Goals, and a course of Action.

Training Options

Command Competence, CFB T-US, LLC provides a range of training options designed to develop the declarative, procedural, and tacit knowledge necessary to develop solid skills for fireground decision-making.

• Free! 10-Minute Training-Tactical Decision Games (TDGs) for the Initial and Strategic IC.
• Workshops on use of TDGs to develop shared mental models and improve decision-making.
• Blue Card continuing education (CE) training sessions.