FIREFIGHTERS who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to four pet dogs after a house blaze picked up awards from an animal charity yesterday.

The RSPCA honoured the nine firefighters for saving the lives of three of the Weimaraner dogs - Shannon, Emma and Jason - after a kitchen fire in Bewholme Close, Billingham.

The fourth and oldest dog, Portia, died from smoke inhalation.

The men - watch manager Paul McIntosh, crew manager Kevin Hanson, crew manager Steve Collishaw and firefighters John Austin, Ian Dutton, Fred Warrick, Ron Walker, Andrew Campbell and Lee McNeil - were presented with certificates of merit by RSPCA chief inspector Neil Mitchell and chief fire officer John Doyle at Cleveland Fire Brigade's headquarters, in Hartlepool.

Mr McIntosh, the officer in charge at the incident, said: "Weimaraners are big, heavy dogs which made the task harder because they were unconscious.

"However, we got them out and used oxygen therapy, air from BA cylinders and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive all but the oldest dog."

Jeff Marwood, Billingham Fire Station Manager, said: "The resuscitation was a team effort and is something that is part of our job.

"There are different degrees of resuscitation, and in this case it was to the extreme, but we will always go that extra mile.

"When we are at a fire and animals are involved, pet owners can be very distressed and we will do anything we can to save their animals."

Elaine White, the owner of the German gun dogs, said: "I can't thank the firefighters enough for what they did to rescue and revive my dogs."