Mayday Trigger Phrases in the Fire Service

This qualitative study aimed to analyze the decision-making process of firefighters in mayday situations. The study utilized SimsUshare, a software program, to present a visual fire simulation for firefighter decision-making. During interviews, participants were presented with trigger phrases in a random order to evaluate their decision-making. Participants were asked if they would proceed, withdraw, or call a mayday when faced with an additional condition. The study focused on male career firefighters from British Columbia and Manitoba, Canada, with ten or more years of experience, and involved 17 participants. The findings of this research identified patterns in how firefighters qualified their reasons for calling a mayday. These patterns included personal medical distress, hole in floor and fire below, which consistently led to mayday calls, reflecting a strong emphasis on safety. The recommendations from this study are that firefighter practices need to focus more on scenario-based training that integrates the development of situational awareness into scenarios that are known to be related to mayday calls and decision making in these contexts.

Author dc:creator

• Mohammed, Shawn

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gasaway, Richard, B.

• School of humanitarian studies

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/ir-19888

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/28283