A six-year-old girl was today hailed a hero for saving her sister's life in a terrifying bathtime ordeal.

Claire Heathcliff dragged her young sister from a scalding bath and dialed 999 - because her deaf mother couldn't hear the toddler's screams.

Two-year-old Sabrina, pictured with Claire, was rushed to hospital where she was treated for burns to her legs and arm and was kept in for two days.

Now her quick-thinking big sister has been awarded a certificate of bravery by ambulance bosses for her actions which her mother, Samantha Stewart, believes may have saved her younger daughter's life.

Claire snatched Sabrina out of the hot water and alerted her mum to the drama after hearing the toddler's screams.

She then phoned 999 and explained what had happened, remembering her address and telephone number - even though she had moved house just four weeks before.

And when the ambulance crew arrived she used sign language to help them communicate with Miss Stewart, who has been profoundly deaf since birth.

Sabrina was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary, but is now recovering at home.

The accident happened as Miss Stewart, 32, was running a bath for her children.

She nipped into Claire's bedroom for a few seconds to get her daughters' pyjamas and went to attend to her five-week-old baby, Yasmin, who was crying downstairs.

But fully-clothed Sabrina used a child step to climb into the hot bath.

The family only moved to their new home in Birch Lane, West Bowling, from Little Horton a week after Miss Stewart gave birth to Yasmin.

At the time of the accident Miss Stewart's partner and the girls' dad, Mike Heathcliff, 31, who works at Filtronic Comtek in Saltaire and who is partially deaf, was out with friends.

Samantha said: "I am just surprised how Claire knew to get Sabrina out as I don't remember teaching her that. She is a really sensible child. She helped me to get her sister out of her clothes and put cold water on her."

Claire also rang her grandmother, Patricia Stewart, 54, who lives in Greengates.

Mrs Stewart said: "Claire was so in control of the whole situation. I couldn't help her until I could get to the house but she knew what to do."

The West Yorkshire Ambulance call taker, Trevor Binns, said Claire was so calm and helpful he didn't realise until later that she was only six years old and that she was relaying the information to her mum through sign language.

He said: "She was so calm and she followed the instructions to the word. She's certainly a credit to her parents. If she hadn't have got her sister out, it could have been a lot worse."

One of the ambulance men who dealt with Sabrina said: "When we arrived Claire took control. She helped us to communicate with her mum. In fact, for one so young her handling of the situation was incredible. Her parents should be very proud."

Sarah Colles, home safety advisor for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "Domestic hot water is often produced far hotter than it needs to be. Children need to be supervised at all times and bath water should be tested before you get into it."