If there was ever a good time to be a hero and risk your life for another without hesitation, doing it while you're live on air during a TV broadcast might be the best bet.
Although Paul Burt's brave actions weren't motivated by anything but instinct and human kindness, springing into action while a camera was capturing his every move certainly hasn't done any harm to his reputation.
The reporter had to quickly turn rescuer during a live segment for 7News at Surfers Paradise on Australia's Gold Coast after he noticed a young boy had run into trouble in the water. Take a look at this:
Advert
Extraordinary footage captured the moment that Paul ditched his segment without a second thought as he spotted the struggling swimmer getting sucked out in a riptide back in May 2022.
Ironically, at the time, he was in the middle of a live report where he was discussing the dangers of beach gutters - AKA stretches of deeper water scoured out of the sand - which can lure beachgoers into life-threatening rips.
Without even thinking twice, the dad-of-two dashed towards the stormy waves to join several other Good Samaritans who were trying to save the 10-year-old boy.
Speaking about the shock incident at the time with The Courier Mail, Paul recalled how the child's father was 'screaming and crying for his son'.
He explained: "We spent about 10 minutes looking for him, diving under the waves. I was thinking we've lost him, we've lost him. I was thinking about my son who's a similar age.
"We started walking out of the water and then we heard someone say, there he is, there he is."
Still sporting his white shirt and pants, Paul can be seen wading through the choppy waves in the footage as he tried to reach the youngster, who was reportedly struggling for at least ten minutes.
The weatherman then tore off his shirt to put it around the boy to try and help keep him afloat when he finally found him, while several others were seen dragging the lad back to the safety of the shore.
7News cameraman Geoff Bowden confessed he feared both the 10-year-old and his colleague Paul had drowned.
But thankfully, all those involved made it back to dry land safely - and the reporter even hopped back on live TV in his soaking wet clothes to give viewers an update on the incident.
He explained in the broadcast: "A group of family from Pakistan jumped in, they got sucked out.
"[He] got dragged out into this fierce gutter, and of course into this rip...about four or five of us jumped in and basically pulled him back to the beach.
"Being of a light weight, he managed to stay afloat and come in adjacent to the southern side of the gutter.
"He's living, he's breathing, he's conscious, he's talking," Paul said, but added that there was 'no doubt' the boy would have swallowed a lot of water.
The heroic presenter then reminded Aussies that ocean gutters exactly like the one he just found himself in are a lot more sinister than they look, saying that they were 'very, very dangerous' - especially for inexperienced swimmers.
Despite helping to save a life live on air, Paul has reportedly been given the boot from 7News after over a decade as the network makes a string of job cuts.
Olivia Burke