people i've worked withn tht diedhe line of duty. >> i probably wouldn't do it if paid for itting >> my heart stopped four times. >> if you're not getting into something bad. >> most people when they think of themy think of death. when i think of them i think of life. >> go! go! go! >> the margi for error is very small. this bridge is heartless and g. unforgivin >> this can be life or death. ♪ ♪ >> this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffith. and good evening, everyone. welcome to this special edition of "nightly business report." i'm sue herera. >> i'm bill griffith. ery night we bring you reports on the stories that move markets mound the world. now with thekets closed for this labor day holiday, we decided to bring you something a

little different, stories you don't often see about the people who do som of america's most dangerous jobs. >> we are going to introduce you to the folks who make a livingg putteir lives on the line. >> as they battle deadly blazes, for example, are an elite team of parachuting firefighters. they brave mother nature's wrath with the man who climbs the world's most treacherous peaks. >> punch the time clock with the ufciger who has kicked and bleder way through a budding empire. >> meet the man who has cheated death more times than he can count and you will not belve why he wrestles venom from the most lethal cobras on eth. at a median salarpeof $48,000 year, your neighborhood firefighter battles deadly o temperatur over 1,000 degrees. >> but some are drawn to duties where the danger is achmped up, way♪ ♪ >> firefighters delivered by rplane parachute into the

fire. >> phil linde is part ofit an e group of firefighters called smoke jumpers. >> people i worked with have died in the line of duty. it's part of the job. it'ser sobing and that's why i take great p tde inrying to do it right? these bravend men women sky dive from a death-defying 3,000 feet into hell on earth, fighting wildfires too hard to reach by road. ♪ ♪ >> ye >> the most fun of my job, i woul say, is the jumping out of the airplane. yeah. t's three minutes of good times. once you hit the ground you're working like every other firefighter. you truly ffl the force nature, no question about it. i've stood on the edge with e wind at my back and been in awe to the point where someone's ap like,ng me on the shoulder saying we're getting out of here. >> there are only about 475 smoke jumpers like phil in the entire country, and since they work miles from civilization, they don't even have access to

the most basic fire fighting w tools likeer and hoses. so how do they fight these infernos? >> you're going to u hand tools and you're going to use chain saws and everything down to the bare mineral soil. anything that has the ability te conduct fir from one area to the heanot it is ditch digging to its finest. with its flames spreading like, well, wildfire, it's a race lo against the c and the elements. that's why phil and the other smoke jumpers work grueling 16-hourda , sometimes weeks at a time. >> this is a very labor-intensive job and that's what appeals to so many of us, you know. that's how your core develops is yu're there with people right next toou, suffering with you. >>nd the flames aren't the only hazard of the job. phil has hard landings that have left him with broken bones. he's even been impaled by a tre branch. >> i've been td by every doctor that you won't come back, you won't walk right again and

you won't walk without a cane. >> you are in the woods and there are plenty of animals to be concerned about. if we encounter grisly brs. we will order a smoke jumper with a shotgun and they will defend camp. >> you may be wondering how much do these bad ass fire jumpers make? >> 45,000. i sure as heck wouldn't jump out plane to make money. i would get a degree to make real money. >> so why does he do it? >> think it's important to protect the natural resources that we have. i love my jobecause of the kind of people i get to work with. everyone iork with has my back. i work hard to have their back. how could i not love a job working with people like that. >> heck yeah! yeah, bmother. >> jumping isn't the only job that takes danger to new heights. blistering winds, crippling temperatures andha avalanches strike without warning. >> so meet the man who works in

a place that just about everything can kill you. > i'm a mountain guide st pediexon tiadle mountains in the world. >> garrett madison ownmadison mountaineering which specializes in guiding amateur adventure seekers up several of the world's most telephone rouse peaks. garrett lea about ten expedings a year taking care of every dail from planting roots to rationing food andit supplie. his job to lead his clients on their climbs and keep them safe from mother nature's wrath. >> there's avalanches, ice fall, crevasses and altitude on this, and all o t thesengs make it very dangerous. hch. >> much business is done here on mount everest where he takes a dozen clients a year. >> the first time it was incredible coming to the top and now coming back i enjoy helping other climbers realize their goal is a bucket list type thing, sething they've dreamed

about for years and decades, maybe their whole life. >> but on the world's tallest peak anat exhilaring hike can turn into a deadly tragedy in no time. >> she was one of the first americans reported dead after a massarthquake caused an avalanche. >> in 2015, 18 people died on everest in a catastrophic avalanche disaster including s garret team doctor yves garalong. >> losing yves was f everyone, for her family and myself. is this something i shoul do? should i continue climbing? >> after serious soul-sea hing garrett ultimately returned to from>> didn't want to walk away the mountain or quick on sucha low note. i can fl their excitement and joy. i had this amazing, positive, contribution on to their lives. >> over the last eight years,

garrett says he's taken more climbers to the top ofth everes any other guide and despite there ever-psent dangers he thinks busins is good. good year, everything is gures. can make six if it's a bad year and lose equipmen like i have several times and natural disasters, i could lose a lot. no reason to cut corners. it will be life or death. >> now while some make their livings battling telements, this woman does so by battling the enemy. >> and she does it in front of millions of adoring fans. >>his is paige "12 gauge" van fndt. a professionalhter in the ufc and her nickname pretty much says it all. >> i like punching people in the face. r body is our tool. it's our weapon. >> at 5'4", 115 pound, paige van zandt is abo the size of the average ballerina, but she'll get paid good nd money to do it.

>> 12 gauge paige van zandt! o >> after yearsf training as a hobby, she got an offer to turn pro and took it. >> i was working as a bank teller and got offered a pro fight and i asked for time off and they said i couldn't take time off and i took it anyway and i was fired. >> it was a car r move that paid off. at 23 paige is nowg ris star and fan favorite in the brutal ultimate fighting champiohip. >> a lotf people are surprised when they fmd out that i' a fighter. obviously, i guess i don't look like a fighter. girls can do absolutely anythin they want to.so here shouldn't be this stigma that you have to be manly to be a fighter. you just have to like to fight. >> while she doesn't seem too concerned about what the effects can have on your being. >> you can't liveour life thinking about all of the bad things that can happen to you. >> she doesn't pull punches when it comes to the hazards of the job. >> the worst thing is you can

die. people have had broken skulls and things like that. >> of course, paige does get paid for all of theblood, sweat and more blood. the ufc takes care of their athletes and a greatti corporaon to work for. >> it holds so far an impressiv0 335, over ten fights and that includes huge rewards for paige's ruthless fighting style. a $50,000 bonus for fight of the night and another 50gs for knockout of the night during her c debut. >> that girl probably was technically better than me, but i wanted it more than she did and i fought more than she did and it was the biggest thing ifat changed my and after i won that fight i went from not being able to aord gas to 0 getting a $50, bonus. >> it was paige's fourth ufc fight, one that she lost, that really sent her career and bank account to new heights. >> my eye got cutnd open was pleading profusely everywhere and i fought through five rounds

of total war,o that's where i really got noticed. i got more fans off of that fight than my opponent did and she won. because of that i got "dancing with the stars." >> paige kicked it on the dance floor, too, finishing in second place and earning $300,000 along the way. >> i wouldn't have done it if i wasn't getting paid for it. >> it landed endorsement deals with reebok,er monnergy drink, metro pcs and harley davidson. >> the thing with fighting is you never know how long you have or a career and it's about setting yourself for successes out of the cage, as well. >> paige van zandt is one oppo underestimate.ant to comingup, you think your job is stressful, try fixing the inrld's highest voltage power lines while dan from a helicopter. >> and you can learn the surprising reasons why this m devotes his life to milking

poisonous >> but first our resume rewind quiz. what dangerous job did pop francis have before joining the clergy? the answer a littleit later. >> smoke jumping, as we showed you earlier isn't the only job that takes danger to new heights. of the top ten deadliest jobs in america, half are per armed in th including loggers and power line workers. >> then there are theobthat are highly unusual and dangerous like the workmen o maintains the gateway arch in st. louis at 630 feet. >> unbelievable. >> or the brave crew that inspectshe one world trade center spire at 1600 feet aak now we a look at a group of guys who make a living putting their lives on the line. >> power line, that is. >> youave to alway be alert and always be on your a game. >> it don't take much voltage to stop your heart. >> joh is part of a skilled team that installs and the world's highest voltage power linesir

live coursing with more power than 400 electric chance. >> there's very little chance of survival if you get into something bad. >> severe burns and you can lose arms and legs and you're not going home. >> in fact, dozens of power linr works die each year, but for these guys, the danger is amplified even further becse they do most of their work using helicopters. ♪ >> you see, john and his teamtes are what are called aerial linemen. their employer, hyperfield aviation, specializes in servicing pow lines that can only be accessed by chopper in some of the country's most fo iving terrain. >> helicopters are dangerous ane por lines are dangerous. together ut the two that's double danger. >> they're headed out to a service tower high up in the glpalachian mountains and to get there they're dg from a chopper traveling at breakneck speeds all while wielding chain

saws. >> there are so many tngs that we have to watch for. pretty mind-boggling. >> to make matters worse,woost of john' is done hovering at an elevation most chopper pilots are trained to avoid called the dead man's curve. >> if i cut this corner i can get it done remember my kids and wife at home and that stops me dead in my tracks because i don't want my kids standing over my casket crying because daddy took short cut. >> despite the dangers, john says he knew he wanted this job the moment he saw the team in action. >> where iotive there's a whole lot of jobs. so the good lord really blessed when heoved me here. i'm just an old hillbilly and neve one time had i been on an airplane before being hired here. >> while the average power worker makes around $67 grand a year. aerial linemen can make a lot more. >> i probably make around $90,000 a year to $100,000, maybe, and i'm not one of the top paid guys.

for me it's not all about the money. the truth of it is, people g to six flags and pay lot of money to take a ride and keeping the national grid going very important. i canet emotional about it. i've been privileged and i am blessed. >> here's a shocking staft statistic. 48 people have been struck, caught or crushed. >> one of the most surprisingly common workplace injuries is getting bitten. >> about 6,000 mail carriers are bitten by dogs each year 'sd then there this man. ♪ >> actually, i've been on a respirator several times. i've had my heart stop four times. my finger was dangling. >> this is jim hnrison. >> i w a coma. i went into acute respiratory arrestpe twice? hends a lot of time in the hospitalith work-related traumas. what you might call reptile dysfunction. >> no, no, no, no.

go behind me. ♪ >> because jim is a professional venom extracto >> he's smiling. showing his teeth pretty good. >> jim spends his day wrangling the world's deadliest snakes in the kentuckyzo reptile the tourist attraction/research facility that he runs with his wife. it's home to e large collection of venomous snakes in the world. >> the last bit i had was from the south american rattlesnake and i had paralysis within minutes. i don't remember leaving the parks lot. >> why risk life and t limb milk snakes in the first place? to help mankind, of course. >> king cobra venom ispa used f medication research and being used in cancer research. >> that's right. there say theory in the medical world tha venom can destroy cancer cells much like chemo does,t' a prospect t created a growing marketplace for venom and its vendors. in fact, jim sells a quarter of

a million dollar wth of venom each yearl to pharmaceuti companies and research labs. >> king cobra venom runs about $100 a gram and raising 2,000sn es has its costs as well. in addition to the zoo's standard expenses, jim spends a whopping $2,000 a year on mice because -- well, snakes got to eat. >> it's a labor of love. you have to have ado passion to it, but it's not something that you're going to get rich quick. >> no, y're not. on average, ske milkers ear $20,000 a year, but jim, he's far from average. he's chosen to pump all of his venom earnings back to the o, leaving himself with a paycheck of absolutely nothing. >> there is a reason i don't salar i do it to try to save lives. most people when they think of venom theyhink of death. when i think of venom, i think of life. i basically volunteer my life to save other people's lives.

>> yes, jim harrison has picked his poison in life ande's saying paycheck and pointer fingers be damned. >> keeping it in the reptile family now, weead to texas to meet one enterprising woman. >> who trapped monstrous gators for a living. >> this 900-pound angry alligator is named godzilla and the 120-pound blond on his bac is christy crowwell. christy earns a living, trapping and capturing these vlent beasts and here in south texas where the gator population is over half a million and growing, these fiercely territorial predators are invading parks and neighborhoods, turning the local kids and pets into vy vulnerable prey. >> he's mad. he's hissing. >> that's wherehrissy and her partner chris comes es. >> it tak a lot of courage.

my mind is saying stop, get back. it's dangerous and the other pat of me is this is your job. >> the w they get these gators just might surprise you. >> here's chris with a rod, and chri has the signakre p tape. the goal, to safely relocate ach capture to a nature preserve. >> i got into the nuisance alligator program. most of the guys get into it to kill the i alligator a want to take the animal ndalive. >>he makes a decent chunk of change d ng it. >> if it's a small little 3-foot alligator underneath a car and that will be a quick $100 to $200, but if it's a company and they have an alligator in their pond, they'll be anywhere from $800 to $900. on average, cristy and her partner trap 180 alligators a

year and eachra can a total of 60 grand. >> we know we're not going to t rich capturing alligators and we tru love what we do. i would rather work with animals over people any day andt's staying on your toes and really just paying attention to the animals. >> coming up, we go back to death-defyingh h with the brave men whose office is hundreds of feet off the ground. >> andd then f outha wt drives this man to plow ahead first into tornadoes. >> but first, the answero our resume rewind quiz. lfr boining -- running tests and the chemical lab and strong arming unruly partiers as a night cookouncer. who knew that? >> then he becomes pope. how abt that? >> to more oklahoma, and birminam, alabama. these three towns were devastated by twisters wholl over 200 people in a matter of minutes.

>> now meet the man who was there for all three on purpose. >> i'm a storm chaser and extreme meteorologist. >> intercepted. >> while most pple hunker down an pray, reed timer drives into tornadoes head-on, using a customized suv that can withstand crushing 200 mile per hour winds. >> these tornadoes can obviously be vy deadly and very dangerous and you have to respect their power. >> here it comes! >> i guess it is the sense of adventure also. when i see a tornado out on the field it's one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen. it almost looks like it's not from this planet when you see one up close. >> he's notis risking h life just for the thrill of it. he does it to save lives. >> storm chasers are the eyes that are reporting to national weather service forecasters and notify ia and they can people in the path of the storms to take shelter and hopefully save their life. >>eeguys, you to take this seriously. this is a large, fast-moving

tornado. >> i've seen the dk side of these storms and that's what storm chasers are trying to prevent. >> as for pay, on average, sto chasers can earn around $70,000 year, mostly by licensing footage like this toediaet ou reid earned more than that thanks to a big on the discovery channel series, storm cses. still, he's not saving up for retirement and that suitsim just fine. >> everything i've made goes right back into storm chasing and goes back into the gas and living onhe road and equipment. do i it because i loveecience. i l storms and storm chasing. not only are you doing what you live, but you're helping to save lives at the same time and that makes it a great thing. >> storm chasers aren't the only ones who face dangers on the open roa roadway incidents account for approximately one quarter of all

fatal workplace injuries. truck drivers rank as the seventh most dangerous job in america. >> then there are s unsung road warriorwho you probably did not know existed until now. with more than $100 million vehicles crossint every year, the george washington bridge is the busiest bridge in the world. >> indeed. while most people are familiar with the toll booth workers who make their way working on the bridge.on many have an idea of those who work above them at death-defying heights. >> part of a brave crew that works year round to ensure that area.illion per >> some people say this is crazy. >> a little crazy may be part of the job requirement. every day these guys mov in and out of steelazes, rigging, and

painting the rusted steel all s while hundr of feet in the air. >> the margin for error is very smel. this bridgs heartless and unforgiving. >> todd whitehill is the bridge crew boss and has been helping to maintain this structure for 22 years. >> if you think about it, there's an o element danger in every trade we do. >> life is not without risk. >> so why did todd accept a job that put l hise at risk? >> the answer was pretty simple. it was steady work, good paying and i uponed to get my daughter through college. it is at 31,000 per year and topped out at 71,000 and more an 1 million square feet of paintable surface and a crew of 16, you could say these guys have the ultimate job secueaty. >> it ry is never ending and getting used to the conditions up here is certainly nothe for faint of heart.

>> not too many people can do this job. we take a p lot ofride in it. >> that's why applicants who want to join the dre team mus of steel have nerves first. >> we want to make sure you're qualifieto handle the heights. wean't teach that. >> step one, an elevator ride to the peak of the tower. a stomach-churning watch over the thsee-ugh grates with raffic whizzing below which leaves canada to the final death. something likealng the plant. >> walk down the six-inch beam and this is what they s, from up the a sight that would paralyze most people with fear. no crying yet. there are people that barely make it owl of the elevator. >> if you make it past the fear, one thing is for certain, even the corner offices don't have a

view like this >> i have new york on one side, sky line on the other al the beautiiver. never gets old. >> that's a great attitude for him for a job like that. >> yha have t it. >> i'll stay in my nice, warm, television studio. >> meoo thanks so much for watching this special edition of "nightly business repo" and for taking the time to meet some of the people who do the world's most dangerous jobs. i'm sue herera. a special thank you for people who work on this program especially theougeous ones that went out on the field to tell the stories and kapt you wered captured thewootage you n the last half hour. have a good evening, everybody. have a good labor day. we'll see you tomorrow.

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible the freeman foundation, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and purepoint financial.o >> how shape our tomorrow? it starts with a vision. we see its ideal form in our mind, and then we begin to chisel. we strip away everything that stands in the way to reveal new possilities.