Just thought you may be interested in the following from the storm & water damage operations course:-perform a self-rescue by ascending to a roof or descending from a roof to the ground. Thats right you are taught to prussic up & down a vertical rope! And everyone must attempt it, using prussic loops or mechanical ascenders also we use Gold tails (with whale tails being phased out).
The assessment is similar to SA, however being able to setup and safely use a roof safety system is a must!
The course is full on, going for two days from 08:30 to 5:30 each day, the assessment (which is held on a different day) goes for a minimum of 2.5 hrs.
Also the use of tarps is considered a last resort & once used they are not normally recovered!
Anyway I thought it was great, learnt heaps (which is good considering I am already qualified and have participated in & led a number of Storm damage operations), just proves you are never too old or smart to learn more
For those is SA you should have a look at the NSW package its good and there may be some useful stuff.
And they treat General Rescue as one big course (instead of breaking it up into 3 modules like SA)& GR is not required for SWDO course (highly recommended though)
Anyway thought you guys might be interested.
cheers