Working at Heights and Fall Protection Program

Firefighters work at height every shift: on ground ladders, at the tip of an aerial, on roofs that may be burning underneath them, on top of apparatus loading hose, on training towers, and at the edge of a rope rescue. Falls from these places are a recurring cause of death and life-changing injury in the fire service, and most happen in ordinary circumstances rather than at the dramatic moment (NIOSH, n.d.-b). This program is working when every height task the department performs has a written fall protection method the crews actually use; when no member is on an aerial, a roof, an apparatus top or a training tower without the protection the method requires; when every ladder, aerial device, harness and lanyard has a current inspection and test record; when every member who works at height holds current training with a card they can show; and when the department can rescue one of its own from a suspended position within the time suspension allows.

This module is Required for every department. It answers Profile Worksheet question 14 (01 Program Profile Worksheet): every department climbs ladders, loads hose and works on roofs, and most operate at least one aerial device. The rope rescue edge-work elements apply only where Rope Rescue Program is switched on; the aerial device elements apply only to departments that operate aerial ladders, platforms, water towers or buckets. The station maintenance elements (bay lights, roofs, mezzanines) apply to every department, including those whose stations are maintained by the municipality.

Consistent with 06 Glossary and Acronyms.

• Anchorage. A secure point of attachment for a lifeline, lanyard or restraint system, rated to the provincial minimum or engineered.
• Competent person. A person who, by knowledge, training and experience, is qualified to perform the duty assigned and is familiar with the regulation and the hazards.
• Control zone. A marked area kept back from an unprotected edge, inside which no member works without fall protection.
• Fall arrest. A system that stops a fall that has already begun: full-body harness, energy-absorbing connection, rated anchorage, and a rescue plan.
• Fall protection plan. The written, site-specific document a province requires for work areas above its plan threshold, including clearance, swing fall, inspection and rescue.
• Fall protection procedure. The written, task-specific method for work below the plan threshold.
• Fall restricting (work positioning). A system that limits a fall to a short distance while the member works with both hands, such as a ladder belt with a hook.
• Learning team. A facilitated session with the people who do the work, held to understand work-as-done before designing a change.
• Non-destructive testing (NDT). Inspection of aerial device structure and welds by methods such as magnetic particle or ultrasonic testing that do not damage the part.
• Psychological safety. The shared belief within a crew that it is safe to speak up, ask, admit error and challenge (Edmondson, 1999)DOI.
• Service test. The annual load and function test of a ground ladder to the NFPA ground ladder standard.
• Travel restraint. A system that keeps the member from reaching an edge, so a fall cannot start.

The core of this program is generic across Canada. The numbers that come from provincial and territorial law (the fall height threshold, the plan threshold, anchorage ratings, training intervals, the emergency relief) are on J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access, and the ladder and aerial device rules on J15 Equipment Inspection, Ladders and Aerial Devices.

A = accountable, R = responsible, C = consulted, I = informed. Full role definitions in 01 Roles and Responsibilities. Deltas only here: the program manager for this program is the Technical Rescue program manager (or the officer named in 06 Program Improvement Teams); fleet services own the aerial device test cycle and the ground ladder service test under a written service level.

Requirement. The department knows, in writing, when fall protection is required and which rules apply at an emergency.

The thresholds. Fall protection is required where a member could fall the threshold height in the applicable regulation (3 m nearly everywhere) or more to the nearest safe surface or into water, and below that height where the surface below would cause worse injury than a flat solid surface (a stairwell, a basement, rebar, machinery, moving water) or where there is hazardous material below. Some jurisdictions exempt entering and leaving by a safe means of access. For work on or from vehicles and mobile equipment, and for ladder work where three-point contact cannot be maintained, some jurisdictions ask for fall protection only where reasonably practicable and otherwise an alternate control, which is why the apparatus-top and ground ladder elements of this program are written as controls rather than as tie-off rules. Values for each province and territory: J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access.

The emergency operations question. Fire departments ask whether fall protection law applies at a fire. The position this program takes, and the safest default in any province:

• The fall protection regulation applies to the department as an employer and to its members as workers, at emergencies and otherwise.
• Where a jurisdiction gives emergency services relief, it is narrow: it lifts a written plan, a section or a Part during emergency response, not the duty to protect members from falls. It may be conditional, for example on the department having a written fall protection procedure and a written rope access code of practice, training its members to both, and complying with them and with standard emergency protocols (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access). Where the relief is conditional, a department with no written procedure and no code of practice has no relief at all. Writing and training to this program is what earns it.
• The relief covers emergency response only. Training, drills, hose loading, station maintenance and aerial familiarization are ordinary work, and the full regulation applies, including the written plan where the training tower or aerial exposes members above the plan threshold. One province’s regulator has said so in writing: training is not structural firefighting (WorkSafeNB, 2011).
• Some jurisdictions instead let the incident commander depart from the general fall protection rules where compliance is impracticable or creates a greater hazard, while keeping the aerial belt, aerial harness and rescue rope rules in force; many give no firefighter relief at all and rely on the general duty to take every reasonable precaution (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-40) (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access). The department records its position for its province or territory in the adopted program.

Minimum method. The program manager records the department’s written position in the adopted program and the fall protection procedure cites it. Evidence. The adopted procedure; the rope access code of practice (Rope Rescue Program section 5.3); the training records. Stage. S1.

Requirement. Every recurring height task is listed with its typical fall distance, the surface below, the control the department has chosen, and the procedure that governs it. Hazards are assessed with the method in 03 Hazard Profile and Risk Register Method, which follows the hazard identification and risk assessment pattern of CSA Z1002 (CSA Z1002:12).

Minimum method. Complete the worksheet in section 17.1 for at least these tasks: ground ladder climbing and working; aerial ladder climbing and tip work; aerial platform and bucket work; water tower operation; roof operations and vertical ventilation (flat, pitched, lightweight); apparatus tops and hose beds (loading, packing, equipment retrieval); training tower and prop evolutions; rope rescue edge work; station maintenance at height (bay lights, mezzanines, roof hatches, flagpoles); hydrant and dry hydrant work at embankments; working over water from docks and vessels. Evidence. The completed inventory, reviewed annually by the Program Improvement Team and after any change in apparatus, stations or service. Stage. S1.

Requirement. The control for each task is chosen in the order the fall protection management standard sets (CSA Z259.17:21), and the choice is recorded with the reason when a lower option is used.

1. Eliminate the height. Load hose from the ground with the hose bed lowered or from a loading platform; retrieve equipment from ground-level compartments; use a camera or a drone for a roof inspection; do not send a member to a roof that a size-up says cannot be worked.
2. Guardrails and fixed protection. Guardrails on hose beds, mezzanines and training tower landings; covers on hatches; railings on apparatus catwalks where the manufacturer provides them.
3. Travel restraint. A harness or belt and a lanyard sized so the member cannot reach the edge. The preferred control on flat roofs with a parapet, apparatus tops with anchor points, and training tower decks.
4. Fall restricting and work positioning. A ladder belt with a hook, a leg lock, or a positioning lanyard that limits a fall to a short distance. The control for aerial ladder tip work and ground ladder working positions.
5. Fall arrest. Full-body harness, energy-absorbing lanyard or self-retracting device, rated anchor, and a rescue plan. Required on aerial platforms before the platform leaves the bed, on pitched roofs in training, and wherever travel restraint is not possible. Fall arrest without a rescue plan is not a control.
6. Control zones and warning lines. Where no edge protection is possible and the work keeps members back from the edge by the control zone distance the applicable regulation sets (this program’s default is 2 m where none is set; J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access), a marked control zone with a monitor. Not a substitute for tie-in near an edge.

Evidence. The inventory column “control chosen” and the procedure for each task. Stage. S1.

Requirement. Ground ladders are climbed, heeled, angled, secured, inspected and tested to the NFPA standard on ground ladders, hose and appliances, which carries forward the former ground ladder design standard and the former use, maintenance and service testing standard (NFPA 1930, 2024), and the procedure is SWP - Ground Ladder Operations.

Minimum method.

• Climbing angle about 75 degrees (the base one quarter of the working height from the wall); the ladder heeled or tied off whenever a member is on it; tip placed to the standard for the task (window, roof, rescue); no more than the rated load; three points of contact while climbing; a leg lock or ladder belt before working with both hands (NFPA 1930, 2024).
• Where the applicable regulation relieves firefighters in structural firefighting or rescue from general ladder-positioning rules (J15 Equipment Inspection, Ladders and Aerial Devices), that relief does not relieve the duty to secure the firefighter on the ladder.
• Monthly visual inspection at the station by the company, recorded by asset tag (section 17.4), with a default target of 90 percent completion each month. Check: heat sensor labels, rails, rungs, halyards, pawls, feet, roof hooks, hardware, cleanliness and lubrication. Any failure: tag out, report, replace.
• Annual service test by a qualified tester (in house with the test equipment and training, or contracted) to the NFPA service test, and after exposure to heat (a tripped heat sensor), overloading, impact, or any suspected damage (NFPA 1930, 2024). Default target: every ladder tested on time, with an 85 percent first-test pass rate as the baseline expectation; a ladder that fails is removed from service until repaired and retested or retired.
• Test stickers and heat sensor labels applied; records by serial number for the life of the ladder; a ladder within 60 days of test expiry generates a work order.

Evidence. Monthly inspection record; annual test record by serial (Form - Ladder and Aerial Inspection and Test Record); work orders. Stage. S1.

Requirement. Aerial ladders, platforms, buckets, ladder platforms and water towers are operated with fall protection for every member on them, by qualified operators, within rated loads and clearances, and tested annually by a third party. Procedure: SWP - Aerial Device Operations.

Minimum method.

• Aerial ladder: every member on the ladder wears a ladder belt with a hook, or a harness with a short positioning lanyard, attached to a rung or the labelled anchor, limiting a fall to about 30 cm; that limit is written into the law of some jurisdictions (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access) and adopted here as the department’s benchmark everywhere. Travel restraint systems are not suitable on an aerial ladder (MLITSD, n.d., GN 4-11). Members do not ride the ladder while it is moving unless the manufacturer’s manual and the procedure allow it and they are attached.
• Aerial platform and bucket: every member wears a full-body harness attached to the labelled platform anchor before the platform leaves the bed; the gate is closed; the load chart is respected including water flow reaction.
• Harness standard: for structural firefighting or rescue from an aerial, a harness meeting the NFPA life safety harness requirements (NFPA 2500, 2022, ch. 24 to 28); a CSA Z259.10 harness (CSA Z259.10:18) where the applicable regulation permits general fall protection equipment instead (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access).
• Operator at the lower controls: whenever firefighters are on the device, a qualified operator stays at the turntable or pedestal controls in sight and voice contact, a rule some jurisdictions write into regulation (J15 Equipment Inspection, Ladders and Aerial Devices). The device is not moved with a member on it unless the operator and the member have confirmed it by radio or voice.
• Tip loads and extension: rated tip load for the configuration (unsupported, supported, with or without water flow) is marked on the device and respected; no over-extension; stabilizers fully deployed and footing checked; short-jacking only within the manufacturer’s limits and the procedure.
• Electrical clearance: the operator sizes up overhead conductors before the device leaves the bed and maintains the minimum clearance in the applicable regulation (J19 Lockout, Machine Guarding and Electrical Safety) and the manufacturer’s manual, never less than {{Minimum electrical clearance}}; a spotter is assigned wherever conductors are within twice the device’s reach.
• Annual third-party inspection and test with non-destructive testing at intervals not exceeding 12 months, with a written certificate (NFPA 1910, 2024), the interval some jurisdictions also set in regulation (J15 Equipment Inspection, Ladders and Aerial Devices); a full non-destructive test at the standard’s longer interval (five years) (NFPA 1910, 2024); after any collision, overload, structural repair or suspected damage; records for the life of the apparatus. Where the device is certified by an engineer rather than tested to the standard (where the jurisdiction allows it), the engineer’s letter is on file and renewed on the interval the engineer sets.
• Anchor points on the device are labelled by the manufacturer or an engineer as travel restraint or fall arrest (MLITSD, n.d., GN 4-11), and the procedure says which to use for which task.

Evidence. Annual certificates; after-event test records; operator qualification records; anchor labelling; drill observation. Stage. S1.

Requirement. Roof work during fire operations is a high-consequence task controlled by size-up, supervision, sounding, egress and the decision not to go. Procedure: SWP - Roof and Vertical Ventilation Operations.

Minimum method.

• Size-up of construction type, roof system (lightweight truss, engineered I-joist, panelized, conventional), burn time and fire location before any member goes to a roof (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-14). No member works over fire-involved lightweight trusses or engineered roofs.
• A roof sector or division officer whenever members are on a roof; the incident safety officer assigned per the Emergency Operations Safety Program triggers (NFPA 1550, 2024).
• Members work from the roof ladder, the aerial tip or the platform; they sound the roof ahead of every step; they maintain two means of egress, one of them other than the route they came up (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-14).
• The thermal imager is used for fire location only; it cannot judge roof or floor strength (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-14).
• Fall protection on roofs: at an emergency, the roof ladder, the aerial and work positioning are the controls under the procedure; in training and non-emergency work, fall arrest or travel restraint to rated anchors on the prop.

Evidence. Procedure; post-incident reviews of roof operations; drill observation. Stage. S1.

Requirement. Training structures are the place where emergency habits are most likely to carry over into unprotected height work, and the law gives no relief there (WorkSafeNB, 2011).

Minimum method. Every training tower, roof prop and elevated prop has: a structural inspection by an engineer on a set cycle ({{Training tower inspection interval}}, confirm the local requirement; commonly annual visual and five-year structural); guardrails on landings and decks to the provincial standard where feasible; anchor points designed, rated, labelled and inspected (CSA Z259.16:21); a written fall protection plan for the exposures above the plan threshold; a pre-evolution inspection (SWP - Training Tower and Prop Inspection); and a rule that all fall protection rules apply in full during every evolution, with the training safety officer authorized to stop any evolution. Evidence. Engineer’s reports; anchor certification; pre-evolution checks; the written plan. Stage. S1 for the plan and the pre-evolution check; S2 for the engineered anchor program.

Requirement. Members do not fall from apparatus. Procedure: SWP - Fall Protection on Apparatus and at Heights.

Minimum method. Ground-level hose loading is the default (lowered hose beds, loading from a platform, or hose laid on the apron and fed up); when a member must be on top, the fewest members needed, working from the centre facing outward, with the apparatus parked level and the bay fans and overhead heaters identified (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-29); three points of contact mounting and dismounting; no riding on the top or the rear step; no standing on a moving apparatus; slip-resistant walking surfaces, handrails and steps maintained in the apparatus preventive maintenance inspection (NFPA 1910, 2024); hose bed railings or covers assessed with the JOHSC for every apparatus type and retrofitted where feasible; icy and wet surfaces treated as a stop-and-assess trigger. Evidence. Procedure; apparatus PM records; JOHSC assessment record. Stage. S1.

Requirement. Edge work in rope rescue is fall protection work. Everyone near an edge is tied in with travel restraint; anchors meet the provincial minimum or are engineered; every live load has a main line and an independent belay (NFPA 2500, 2022). The detail is in Rope Rescue Program and SWP - Rope Rescue Systems Rigging and Inspection; this program owns the tie-in-at-the-edge rule and the rope access code of practice reference that earns the emergency relief in section 5.1. Stage. S1 where rope rescue is provided.

Requirement. Every harness, belt, lanyard, energy absorber, self-retracting device, connector, anchor connector and lifeline is to the CSA Z259 part that applies (or the NFPA life safety requirement for rescue harnesses), is compatible with the other components it is used with, is inspected before use and by a competent person on a schedule, is inspected after any arrest or firefighting exposure, and is retired on criteria (CSA Z259.17:21).

Minimum method.

• Inventory with unique ID, standard and class, date in service, manufacturer’s service life, and location (section 17.6).
• Pre-use inspection by the user, every use: webbing, stitching, hardware, labels, indicators.
• Post-use inspection of any harness worn for structural firefighting or rescue by a competent person before reuse, as some jurisdictions’ firefighter equipment rules also require (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access), recorded on the card (Form - Fall Protection Equipment Inspection Card).
• Competent-person inspection on the schedule set in the fall protection plan, no less than every six months for in-service equipment, recorded.
• Removal from service after any fall arrest, impact load, chemical or heat exposure, contamination that cannot be cleaned, a failed inspection, or doubt (CSA Z259.17:21); a removed item is tagged, quarantined and either returned by the manufacturer or destroyed.
• Retirement at the manufacturer’s service life or on condition, whichever is first, recorded.
• Storage dry, dark, away from fuels, solvents, exhaust and sharp objects.

Evidence. Inventory; inspection cards; removal and retirement records. Stage. S1.

Requirement. A member suspended in a harness after an arrested fall is rescued before suspension trauma makes the rescue a recovery. A written rescue procedure is a required part of the fall protection plan wherever the applicable regulation requires a plan (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access) and of the fall protection management standard (CSA Z259.17:21).

Minimum method. The aerial crew and the rope rescue team are the designated rescue capability for suspended members on apparatus, towers and at incidents; the procedure names the method for each location (aerial pick-off, lowering from above, ladder rescue, self-rescue with relief steps); every member who uses fall arrest is trained to deploy suspension relief steps; a suspended-worker rescue drill is run at least annually by each aerial and rope crew and timed. Evidence. Procedure; drill records with times. Stage. S1 for the procedure; S2 for the timed annual drill by every crew.

Requirement. Changing bay lights, clearing roof drains, reaching mezzanine storage and similar station tasks are done with the same hierarchy: a platform lift or a fixed stair before a ladder, a ladder with three-point contact and a second person before anything else, and fall arrest to a rated anchor where a roof edge is near. Contractors on station roofs follow Contractor and Mutual Aid Safety Program. This element is shared with Facilities and Station Safety Program. Stage. S1.

(a) Work-as-done. Before any procedure in this program is written or changed, the learning team (06 Program Improvement Teams section 5) sits with the members who climb, ride and load, and describes: how hose is actually loaded at each station and why members go on top (bed height, bay layout, time pressure after a call); how crews decide whether to go to a roof, who makes the call, and what information they really have at that moment; how the aerial tip is worked when the belt gets in the way of the task; what the ladder angle and heel look like when the crew is short a member; where on each apparatus people actually attach, and where there is nothing to attach to; and the near misses nobody reported because nothing happened. The procedure is written from that description, not from the manual (Hollnagel, 2014; Conklin, 2012).

(b) Capacity and margins. This work goes right most of the time because experienced officers size up before committing, crews have enough people to heel and tie off, equipment is where it should be and works, and there is time to attach. That capacity erodes with short crews (one person heeling and climbing), daytime volunteer response, fatigue late in a long incident, ice and wind, aerials positioned in a hurry near conductors, and belts or harnesses that are a nuisance to wear with structural gear. The program protects the margin by making ground-level loading the default, by requiring a roof officer and a second egress rather than relying on individual judgement at the moment, by keeping an operator at the controls, by buying belts and harnesses crews will actually wear, and by treating a short crew or bad weather as a reason to change the plan rather than to try harder (Hollnagel, 2014).

(c) Just culture. A member who worked unattached, chose the wrong anchor, or improvised a heel is not the problem to fix; the conditions that made that choice sensible are (Dekker, 2016). Adaptations and workarounds found in drills, inspections or reviews go to the learning team as design input. The learning firewall applies: information from debriefs, learning teams, near-miss reports and reviews is never the basis for discipline. Conduct concerns (intentional harm, impairment, reckless disregard) go to a separate process run by different people, as Incident Investigation and Learning Program sets out (The Human Factor, 2026a).

(d) Psychological safety. Any member can stop a climb, a roof assignment, an aerial movement or a hose-loading job by saying the hazard and the action (“Stop, hold the ladder, the butt is on ice”). The officer’s job in reply is to acknowledge, act on the call, and review it later for learning, never to argue it on the spot. A member who wants to challenge a roof assignment says so to the sector officer or on the radio; the officer answers with the reason or changes the plan. Leaders show it is safe by thanking stop-work calls in the debrief and the quarterly update, by reporting their own near misses, and by never asking “who” before “what made sense” (Edmondson, 1999DOI; Dekker, 2016). A concern a member raises about this program (a missing anchor, an aerial that moved, a ladder that failed) goes to the company officer or straight to the program team lead or the JOHSC consultant, and the member gets an answer within 15 days (section 12).

(e) Learning link. Every roof operation, aerial rescue, suspended-worker drill and fall near miss gets a Tier 1 After-Action Review. A fall, an arrested fall, an aerial struck or moved with a member on it, or a near miss with potential for death or critical injury goes to Tier 2 Post-Incident Analysis. A death or critical injury from a fall is Tier 3 Independent Learning Review (The Human Factor, 2026a). Crew AAR questions for this task: What did we expect the roof (or the ladder, or the aerial) to do, and what did it do? Where was each of us attached, and was there a moment when someone was not? What would have made it easier to say stop? Full method: Incident Investigation and Learning Program and Manual 02 - The Three Tiers and Event Triage.

Competency sign-off template in section 17.7.

• SWP - Ground Ladder Operations
• SWP - Aerial Device Operations
• SWP - Roof and Vertical Ventilation Operations
• SWP - Fall Protection on Apparatus and at Heights
• SWP - Training Tower and Prop Inspection (shared with Training Safety and Live Fire Program)
• SWP - Rope Rescue Systems Rigging and Inspection (owned by Rope Rescue Program; the edge tie-in rule is this program’s)

• Form - Ladder and Aerial Inspection and Test Record
• Form - Fall Protection Equipment Inspection Card
• Fall hazard inventory worksheet (section 17.1)
• Fall protection procedure and plan templates (sections 17.2 and 17.3)
• Training and competency sign-off (section 17.7)
• Quarterly indicator worksheet (section 17.8)
• Retention: training records for the member’s service plus the period in 05 Document Control and Records; aerial certificates for the life of the apparatus; ladder test records for the life of the ladder; inspection cards for the life of the item plus one year.

Indicator definitions align with 04 Baseline Metrics and Indicator Set; worksheet in section 17.8.

Loop test. A volunteer captain reports on Monday that the platform anchor label on the second-due aerial has worn off and the crew is not sure which point is the fall arrest anchor. By Friday the item is in the register with the program manager as owner, the aerial is placarded with a temporary label confirmed against the manufacturer’s manual, and the captain has heard back. Within 30 days the manufacturer’s labels are replaced on every aerial, the anchor register is updated, a change notice goes to every station with a photograph, and the quarterly update reports it closed with evidence.

Checklist: Checklist - Working at Heights and Fall Protection. The five questions an auditor asks first:

1. Show me the fall hazard inventory and the written procedure for the last height task this station performed.
2. Pick a member at random: show me their fall protection card and its expiry.
3. Pick a ground ladder: show me last month’s inspection and the last annual test by serial.
4. Show me the current certificate for this aerial, and the post-use inspection card for the harness used at the last fire.
5. Who rescues a member suspended from this aerial, and when did they last practise it? And when did a member last stop a height task, and what happened to them?

Accreditation crosswalk. The audit evidence for this program also serves the apparatus maintenance criterion (aerial and ladder testing by qualified technicians, out-of-service rules) and the occupational health and safety criterion (hazard reporting and communication, documented risk reduction, safety training on new equipment) (CPSE, 2019, criteria 6D.1, 6D.5, 11A.2, 11A.3, 11A.5).

Generic patterns from line-of-duty death and injury investigations (NIOSH, n.d.-b) this program answers:

• Falls through fire-weakened roofs on lightweight truss and engineered roofs during vertical ventilation, with no construction size-up, no sounding and a single egress. Controlled by 5.6 and the no-go rules in the roof procedure.
• Falls from aerial tips when the member was not belted or the aerial was repositioned with a member on it and the operator was away from the controls. Controlled by 5.5.
• Falls from apparatus tops while loading hose, slips on icy surfaces, stepping off the rear step. Controlled by 5.8.
• Ground ladder slips from improper angle or heeling, and failures of heat-damaged or overloaded ladders that were never retested. Controlled by 5.4.
• Training-ground falls where emergency habits carried over and no fall protection was rigged on a tower. Controlled by 5.7 and the training-is-not-an-emergency rule in 5.1.
• Suspension without a rescue plan after an arrested fall. Controlled by 5.11.
• Supervision, written procedures and inspection records are what a regulator asks for first after a fall; the records this program generates are the due diligence evidence (01 Roles and Responsibilities section 2).

Stage 1 minimum. The written position on emergency operations (5.1); the fall hazard inventory (5.2); the fall protection procedure for every listed task and one overall plan for the training tower and aerial training (5.3, 17.2, 17.3); the four procedures in section 9; monthly ladder inspection and annual service test (5.4); aerial annual certificate and the belt-or-harness and operator-at-controls rules (5.5); harness post-use inspection (5.10); fall protection training with cards for every operational member (7); a suspended-worker rescue procedure (5.11); one learning-team session on hose loading and roof decisions (6a); the accountability loop (12).

Cost note. People: program manager and team about four hours a month; one competent-person inspector per platoon or district trained (one day each); instructor capacity for the recurrent cycle (about two hours per member per cycle, plus hands-on). Money: annual aerial inspection and test per device (contracted, typically a four-figure sum per device; confirm locally); ground ladder service test equipment or a contracted test per ladder; CSA harnesses, lanyards and belts for aerial crews and training; anchor labelling; engineer’s inspection of training towers on cycle. A small volunteer department with one aerial and 20 ladders can reach Stage 1 for the cost of the aerial test, the ladder tests and a training evening.

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.

Complete one row per recurring task. Review annually and after any change in apparatus, stations, props or service.

For each task in the inventory with a maximum fall distance below the plan threshold in the applicable regulation, complete this template and file it with the procedure for the task (or write it into the task SWP). Check the content list your jurisdiction requires (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access).

One overall plan may cover every work area with this exposure (training tower, aerial training, roof props, station roofs) where the applicable regulation allows it. Check the content list your jurisdiction requires (J16 Fall Protection and Rope Access).

Annual test and after-event test are recorded on Form - Ladder and Aerial Inspection and Test Record.

Full record: Form - Ladder and Aerial Inspection and Test Record.

Inspection card: Form - Fall Protection Equipment Inspection Card.

Carried with each harness; the full card is Form - Fall Protection Equipment Inspection Card.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH]. (n.d.-b). Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program [Program website and investigation reports]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/firefighters/fffipp/index.html

Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development [MLITSD]. (n.d.). Firefighter guidance notes (Section 21 Advisory Committee; individual notes revised to 2026). https://www.ontario.ca/document/firefighter-guidance-notes