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‘Save the bacon’: Pig pooped out pedometer to start farm fire

The pigs were wearing pedometers to prove that they were free range. Pexels

Firefighters saved a lot of people’s bacon at a U.K. pig farm on Saturday when they put out a major blaze that was started by a step-counter and one hungry swine’s behind.

The fire broke out Saturday afternoon in a bed of dry hay on four connected pigpens, according to the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. The fire ultimately burned across 75 square metres before firefighters put it out, the fire service wrote in a tweet.

A firefighter puts out a fire on a pig farm in North Yorkshire, England, on March 7, 2020. Russell Jenkinson/Twitter

The fire service says it managed to “save the bacon” and that no pigs were harmed in the fire. However, one pig’s step-counter may never be the same.

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Authorities say the whole ordeal can be traced back to the step-counters, also known as pedometers, that the pigs were wearing. They’re meant to prove that the animals are walking around as “free range” livestock, but one pig managed to swallow another animal’s device.

Firefighters rake up the hay in a pigpen to stop a fire north of Leeds, U.K., on March 7, 2020. Russell Jenkinson/Twitter

The fire started “after nature had taken its course,” firefighters said. They say the pedometer’s copper battery “reacted” with the straw bedding in the pigpen, sparking the fire.

Firefighters shared the news on Twitter, where they also trotted out several pig puns for people perusing their proclamations.

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“Should be an oink not a tweet,” they wrote.

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