Many of your community’s vital services and infrastructure are maintained by men and women who put their lives at risk every single day. Most don’t give this a passing thought until they’re in need of a life-saving service or a first-responder.

Though we often equate some of the most dangerous jobs in the world with police officers and military servicemen and women, many of the toughest and most dangerous jobs go largely unnoticed by most members of the community.

Imagine if there were no brave men and women at all. This should be a scary thought. If this were the case, there would be no one to put out our fires, fight our crimes, restore our power, or even help to clear the roadways.

Here, we’ll explore a few of the most dangerous jobs in the world, some of which you can get without a college degree, talk about the job responsibilities, and illustrate just how vital they are to the community in which you live.

Lineman

We’ve all experienced the horrible inconvenience when after a storm or other calamity, our power runs out in our homes and office buildings. This is never a laughing matter, and if not for the men and women who service our power lines, we’d all be roughing it in the dark.; Many people don’t think of this particular job as being considered dangerous.

Linemen are called out to restore power in sometimes extremely hazardous conditions. Not only are they exposed to down power lines with live currents of electricity, but they have to fight the elements as well as attempt to restore power.

The fact is, being a lineman is one of the top 10 deadliest careers in the United States, with between 30 to 50 linemen being killed every year per 100,000 utility workers. This is nearly 3 times the fatality rate of police officers or firefighters.

While many of these brave men and women die due to falling or from electrocution, many others lose limbs or get seriously burned or injured.

Firefighters

Being a firefighter is nearly every little boy’s dream. But, many young men might reconsider this idea if they knew exactly the risk that firefighters take every single time they go out on an emergency call.

Not only do firefighters expose themselves to burning blazes, high heat, and intense smoke, they also run the risk of several diseases that they’re exposed to from inhaling toxic fumes and chemicals, even from their own tools.

For example, firefighters often use foam to suppress a fire faster than can be accomplished with water. Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) is often used to suppress intense blazes in a much more expedient fashion. However, exposure to this foam over time can result in the development of several types of cancer.

Those firefighters who’ve developed cancer due to AFFF have considered filing lawsuits to receive compensation for medical expenses and debilitating illnesses.

Commercial Diver

You might like the idea of diving as a professional career. But, this line of work is one of the most dangerous in the world.

As a commercial diver, you’re not going to be gleefully driving around, looking at beautiful sceneries, and exploring the beautiful corral in a lagoon on an island resort. In fact, a commercial diver’s work is far from this type of paradise.

Commercial divers work largely in the salvage and oil and gas industries. These divers are often welders, pipefitters, and electricians as well. As such, they work in extremely harsh environments of very deep water with near-zero visibility most of the time and run a high risk of death from many dangers.

If you’ve ever spent time in the water off of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, you’ll surely know that this isn’t anyone’s vacation paradise.

Tough jobs are for tough people. And, without these brave individuals, many of the services that we take for granted simply wouldn’t exist at all. We all owe these men and women who go out of their way to make our lives easier a debt of gratitude, and our fullest respect.