Lynn News photographer Paul Tibbs has given readers an insight into the day-to-day lives of local firefighting and air ambulance crews, as part of a new online video series.

Editorial staff at the paper have recently begun experimenting with video reporting, and Paul jumped at the chance to bring the work of local emergency services to life.

During a day-and-a-half with Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service’s Blue Watch, based at Lynn fire station, Paul was able to capture the drama of real call outs.

He also watched the crew as they underwent breathing apparatus training, taking part in a mock rescue which saw them saving a casualty trapped in a smoke-filled building, and sat in on a talk at a school on the topic of road traffic accidents.

Paul told holdthefrontpage: “I like all those programmes on television and, although you can do features with still pictures, video brings it more to life.

“On the first half-day with the fire service I had to follow behind in a blue-light car, but on the full day I got permission to travel in the engine, which was a good experience.”

During Paul’s time with the air ambulance crew he got the ‘curse of the observer’ – going out on three call outs only to be stood down en route, but during his time with Blue Watch they were called out to a road traffic accident and to a man who had been trapped under a fork lift truck.

Paul said: “The man under the fork lift had actually been freed by the time we got there, but it was a good adrenalin buzz rushing through the middle of town traffic in convoy.

“It was interesting to do and from a photographic point of view you normally go out to a job and then only get one or two pics used, so it’s nice to get the opportunity to produce a five-minute video clip.”

Paul also plans to spend a day with paramedics in a rapid response vehicle and another with the traffic police, and may also get to accompany a lifeboat crew during a practice call out.