A LITTER of puppies has been given an array of fire-themed names by staff at Essex Fire and Rescue after winning a competition.

White Watch, a team of control operators at the service, has named eight Staffordshire bull terriers at the Danaher Animal Home in Wethersfield. 

The puppies were all given fire-themed names - Blaze, Dennis, Ember, Flame, Loki, Phoenix, Sparkie and Smokey - and will be ready for their new homes in a few weeks. 

The puppies were born after Danaher took in Cassie, a five-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier who had been abandoned while pregnant.

Cassie gave birth to eight puppies - six boys and two girls - in early February. 

The animal rescue launched a competition for the public to name the litter and crew manager Claire Bannister entered on behalf of White Watch for the pups to have fire-themed names. 

Claire said: “We’re a team of dog lovers in White Watch and Danaher Animal Home is a charity we hold close to our hearts.

“When we saw the post on Facebook, we thought they’d really suit fire-themed names.”

White Watch was picked as the winner and the team was invited to Danaher to meet the puppies.

During the visit, they were armed with plenty of toys and treats, and enjoyed lots of cuddles with the new pups and their mum. 

Danaher's Katie Shilling said: “It was a very difficult decision to pick names as we had such a huge response from the post and had so many themes to choose from.

“They were such great names picked out by the fire service team and seemed to be very suitable for our puppies, I just had to pick them.”