From fixing fountains to tending to sharks, Las Vegas has become a home to people who work below the scenes.
"I never know what's going to happen when I go to work," said Adrienne Rowland, director of Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.
While others deal with sharks in the corporate world, Rowland deals with the real thing. Each day she gears up with a chain metal suit and dives into her office.
"We get to go in, do maintenance-type stuff - cleaning windows, washing the corals down, getting the algae out, maybe cleaning up after our friends," she said.
Rowland took FOX5 along for the ride. Rowland's coworkers include turtles weighing hundreds of pounds and sharks up to 10 feet long. Rowland warned that you don't mess with the sharks.
"They definitely need to be respected," she said. "They are still wild animals, they still have sharp teeth."
When it comes time for a lunch break, there's absolutely no socializing.
"They're all each individually fed from up above the exhibit," Rowland said. "We don't feed while diving. Those are two very separate activities for a reason."
Meanwhile, engineers at the Bellagio have dangers of their own to face each day. The water display at the front of the property has an entire underwater system that requires constant upkeep.
The Fountains of Bellagio display has 5,000 lights and more than 1,200 water-shooting devices. Engineers said if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, your entire body could be launched 15 feet in the air. The heavy duty, extreme shooters can do even more damage.
"The extreme shooters would most likely break you," said Charly Parr, engineer with the Fountains of Bellagio. "They would destroy bones in your body, probably break your backbone."
It takes 22 million gallons of water to fill the Bellagio pool. The size of the sound system used to project the accompanying music is the equivalent of what would be used at two typical concert venues.
Copyright 2012 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.
Managing Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay is serious business. (Stefanie Jay/FOX5)
An astounding amount of work goes into maintaining The Fountains of Bellagio. (Stefanie Jay/FOX5)
