The business of getting out of confined spaces.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: NEWS

Safety in confined spaces is critical to heavy industry.

One Sudbury company has set up shop to teach clients how to conduct themselves in tight spaces, as well as rescue others from dangerous situations.

NATT Safety Services is part of a group of companies offering safety and rescue training. They include Total Personnel Solutions (TPS) and Transport Help.

The company opened their base in the Sudbury suburb of Lively last October.

"We became comfortable with the industrial park itself, and had access to Vale on a daily basis," said general manager Mark Arnold.

There are two main components of the location: the confined space rescue services business, which is manned out of the building all year, and the training.

NATT supplies and provides equipment, trainers, rescue plans as well as permits.

"There is a whole process, and we do that on a daily basis," Arnold said.

NATT's core expertise is training in confined space rescue.

They have many trainers that provide instruction in rescue, as well as training in operating heavy equipment, like Genie lifts and sky lifts, transporting dangerous goods, all the way to WHIMIS training for workplaces.

"We train anywhere in the province," Arnold said.

Jennifer Roy, divisional manager of industrial safety training, specializes in confined spaces. She performs site inspections, determines safety hazards (using what she calls, the "hierarchy of controls") and helps devise escape and rescue plans.

The term confined space conjures up images of deep mine shafts or windowless rooms.

But it also includes trenches...