▲

Firefighters around the world risk their lives on a daily basis to protect lives, property, and the environment. It's one of the most dangerous jobs out there, and we'd all be a lot worse off without these courageous first responders. These brave and highly skilled individuals have been pushed to the limit in recent years due to large-scale disasters like rampant wildfires, a global pandemic, and a deplorable invasion of Europe that's having ripple effects all over the world.

Browse this gallery and see just how hazardous the life of a firefighter really is.

▲

Firefighters around the world are highly trained to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment.

▲

Their numerous tasks and responsibilities include fire suppression, rescue, fire prevention, and basic first aid, often undertaken in dangerous conditions.

▲

The skills required for safe operations are regularly practiced during training evaluations throughout a firefighter's career. These drills, plus real-life emergency callout situations, are documented in the following photographs.

▲Blazing palm trees are sprayed down by a firefighter as the Woolsey Fire burns in Malibu. The fire destroyed dozens of structures, forced thousands of evacuations, and closed a major freeway.

▲Despite the efforts of several fire crews, a fire at the historic National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro completely destroyed the building and its rare collections.

▲Firefighters drench the burning 24-story residential Grenfell Tower block in West London.

▲A pair of firefighters work on the cruise ship Costa Concordia that lies grounded off the island of Giglio.

▲National Republican Guards and firefighters try to extinguish a forest blaze after a wildfire took dozens of lives near Pedrógão Grande, located in the country's Leiria district.

▲

Fireboat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans, Louisiana.

▲Cairo's landmark National Theatre was partially destroyed by fire in 2008. Fortunately, the building was restored and reopened six years later.

▲The charred remains of a China Airlines plane lies on the tarmac on Japan's southern island of Okinawa. The aircraft caught fire soon after landing, but all 165 people on board escaped safely.

▲A fire rescue boat takes people from their homes on Evesham High Street as water floods areas of the Worcestershire town following torrential rain.

▲A firefighter lights a controlled burn on the so-called Rough Fire in the Sequoia National Forest in California.

▲An Mi-17 helicopter dumps water on a burning forest at Ogan Komering Ulu in Indonesia's South Sumatra province.

▲Smoke billows into the sky as a fireman attempts to extinguish a fire at a Mercedes-Benz spare parts warehouse in Leverkusen.

▲

In this image, a wildfire threatens to spread out of control in the Catalonia region of the country.

▲Iraqi firefighters battle a burning pipeline outside Baghdad.

▲Firefighters use a foam gun to extinguish a fire during a joint training exercise between the Emergency Ministry and airport services at Yemelyanovo airport in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

▲A Canadair firefighting aircraft drops water on a wildfire that's sweeping through a forest in Carros, near Nice.

▲Firefighters face a curtain of orange smoke as they try to extinguish a fire at the Industrial Palace Fairgrounds in Prague.

▲Specialist rescue crews from the HM Coastguard Rescue Service and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service help rescue an elderly couple (and their two dogs) whose house was in danger of flooding, this near the town of Blairgowrie.

▲An exhausted Indonesian firefighter carries a fire hose after fighting burning palm oil trees at a plantation at Jebus village in Muaro Jambi, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

▲A lone firefighter stands on a ladder as a fire rages at an apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

▲Shanties engulfed by fire burn out of control as a firefighter aims water at the surrounding buildings.

▲Firefighters climb down a building during a fire protection drill at a firefighter training base in Chongqing municipality.

▲A firefighting helicopter flies in front of the setting sun as a wildfire burns near the village of Kapandriti, north of Athens.

▲

Firefighters on a ladder loom over a collapsed and still smoldering building in downtown São Paulo as they attempt to dampen the blaze.

▲A moorland fire at Winter Hill, near the village of Rivington, is dealt with swiftly before it can spread.

▲A firefighter is covered with protective aqueous film-forming foam as he tries to control a fire that broke out in a thinner manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.

▲A team of firefighters operate at the site where a large explosion occurred at a restaurant in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido.

▲A burning car is extinguished after catching fire during New Year celebrations in Douai in northern France.

▲Pictured is a hose team training to fight an aircraft fire aboard a US aircraft carrier.

▲

Despite the efforts of firefighters, a deadly fire at a chemical warehouse in Dhaka claimed dozens of lives.

▲

Firefighters in Ukraine are stretched thin as Russian bombs destroy civilian buildings in cities all over the country.