Let me piggy back onto what Ethan has said. Yes, the Confined Space rules apply. Yes, recovering a casualty from the
grid is a very specialized rescue.
In my
repeated experience, faith in the local Fired Department's rescue capabilities is greatly overestimated. "High Angle" rescue can mean a variety of things depending on how/what the local FD trains. Even the Orange County (Calif.) Urban Search & Rescue team has been thwarted a half dozen times in training exercises by my venues. A casualty needing removal from
FOH catwalks took almost 5 hours, and the
system that was built was directed by one of our riggers. Is your FD using industrial climbing/rescue (i.e. Rope Access), or are they trying to adapt back country techniques on the fly? Some departments will train regularly at your facility, some will not. Is management overly confident and/or lazy about "nothing's gonna happen"?
It was always pretty frustrating to watch 15 firefighters/rescue responders fail to contact the rescue dummy over 6 hours on both nights the last time I was present. Being a Rope Access guy, I couldn't even tell our FD what to do because it's a completely different set of skills and tools.
So yes, engage your local FD by all means. I don't think that's a negotiable. But train, (and get certified), in
house people AND buy the gear to affect rescue in
house yourselves. That doesn't mean "make up your own stuff and go sport climbing in the theater twice a year". That means looking into SPRAT or
IRATA certifications and actual work at height gear for rescue. My favorite thing about Rope Access has always been the fact that if my partner or someone else on the site gets in trouble, I've got what I need to get them down and in a lot of cases it's already on me- I don't even have to go to the
ground I just have to get over to them.
Bonus? You get to take boss pix like this in the training center. Leopard print kneepads and all.
View attachment 24981
Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians
Industrial Rope Access Trade Association