How men who worked ‘most dangerous job of all time’ managed to survive despite huge risk

Historically, there have been a range of dangerous jobs to come out - but this might be the worst.

From cave explorations to oil rigg gigs, there’s no shortage of the things that people need to do without getting killed in the process.

But there’s a job that required people to don huge protective suits that made them look like astronauts while they swam in deadly liquid.

Maybe sitting at your desk isn’t too bad after all?

This job role was created in 1986 and saw a group of men actually survive against all odds.

These three divers would go down in history as probably some of the bravest people alive - and they did it all without training.

Remember the Chernobyl disaster, that was caused by a reactor going off the rails in Ukraine and made an entire city uninhabitable due to its extreme radiation still to this day?

It’s hard to forget.

But, according to Reddit, these men that were there that day were tasked with the unimaginable.

The Chernobyl disaster was the worst man-made disaster of all time. (HBO)

While hundreds of thousands of firefighters and liquidators were on scene to clean up the mess from the meltdown of Reactor 4, three others, who were workers there had to then become divers.

Alexei Ananenko, a mechanical engineer, Valeri Bespalov a senior engineer and Boris Baranov, an engineer and plan liquidator were set up as the so-called ‘Suicide Squad’, according to Sky History.

Days after Reactor 4 failed and killed many, Reactor 4’s fluid was at risk of flowing into the 20 million litre pools beneath, which were used as coolant for the reactor.

If the two made contact, then the steam created would be catastrophic as the water was already contaminated with radiation.

It would probably destroy the entire rest of the Chernobyl plant and the other three reactors, and the water and nuclear fallout could destroy half of Europe - this would cause it to be uninhabitable for 500,000 years or even more than that.

So no pressure there.

Thankfully, if the divers were to pull the valves, the blubber pools would drain and the risk would be gone.

But the valves were located in the basement, which was flooded with even more irradiated water.

While firefighters were busy trying to pump water out of the basement to make it easier, Alexei , Boris, and Valeri volunteered to find the valves.

Three men were tasked with the worst job ever. (HBO)

With water around their knees and in the dark, they reportedly waded through radioactive water until they found the drainage valves.

Thankfully, they managed to twist the valves in time and the pools beneath the reactor began to drain- thus preventing an explosion that could have turned the world on its head.

Not only did they survive, but they avoided getting Acute Radiation Syndrome from exposure thanks to their suits and working as fast as possible - as well as the water itself, according to History Defined.

All three divers survived the event and were later awarded the Order For Courage by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2018.

However, Boris had passed away in 2005 from a heart condition and so was awarded the award after his untimely death.

Ananenko said in 2021 that instead of viewing the task as a death sentence, they instead thought of it as something they needed to do, adding: "I never thought it might mean death, and they only sent me because I knew how to do it."