The Hardest Job in the Room

In this episode, Dan sits down with Mark Curtis—Senior Director of Safety Programs and DPA at Fairwater, and board president of the Washington State Maritime Cooperative—for a deep dive into the planning section.

They work through what makes the planning section chief role the hardest job in the incident command post. Dan explains why the documentation unit leader is always his first hire, why an incident action plan without unified command signatures is "just waste paper," and how responder immunity depends on getting those signatures in place.

The conversation covers the realities of hybrid command posts, why "digital first" isn't optional anymore, the emerging threat of ship fires and lithium-ion batteries, and the massive stack of plans required on a single vessel. They also touch on the next generation of emergency responders coming out of maritime academies and what the industry needs to do to stay ahead of incidents we haven't trained for yet.

Plus: meeting owl troubleshooting, privateering, and the case for bringing cannons back.