A Russian circus trainer fed a cocktail of warm water and vodka to two elephants stranded in the blistering Siberian cold on Thursday and credited it with saving their lives. A trailer carrying the Indian elephants caught fire on a highway in the Novosibirsk region, sending emergency workers scrambling to get the animals out of the cold and into a nearby garage, state media reported. The animals’ trainer, Leonid Labo, diluted two cases of vodka and fed the mixture to the animals, he told Komsomolskaya Pravda, a popular tabloid. The animals suffered nothing more serious than frostbite to their ears, a veterinarian said. The director of the Novosibirsk regional zoo said if not for the vodka, the animals certainly would have died. “In cold temperatures we give vodka to the elephants and the monkeys even when they are inside,” said the director, Rostislav Shilo. “But only domestic vodka.”