LIKE her big-screen counterpart Babe, Smokey Sue the sow proved that pigs really do care when fire broke out in the barn where she had just given birth.

Showing a mother's natural instinct to protect her offspring, she herded her nine piglets away from the blaze, which was started by a heat lamp in the litter nursery at Broom Mill Farm, near West Auckland, County Durham.

Thankfully, firefighters were soon on the scene to rescue her brood, although four of them later died from burns and smoke inhalation.

The five survivors were put on parade by their rescuers, led by Sub-Officer Steve Smith.

He said: "She would not leave without them. She kept trying to go back in."

Farmer Matthew Betney, 39, who has 60 breeding sows and almost 120 piglets at the farm, was away when the blaze started, and was relieved that a decorator was on hand to raise the alarm.

With his wife, Tracy, also 39, and sons William, 11, and Thomas, seven, he gives names to their favourite pigs, including his pet, Big Mum.

He said: "Sue herded her piglets to the bottom end of the barn. She moved them away from the fire. It was natural instinct kicking in.

"If the painter hadn't been there, the whole farm could have gone. That would have been heartbreaking.

"It's not the damage, that can be repaired. It's about life."