An arson probe was under way today after another blaze at a derelict Colchester hospital.

The fire at St Mary's - the second major one this year - damaged a wooden building on the site.

It also brought evening road chaos as police closed off the town's Balkerne Hill while firefighters used their Simon Snorkel aerial ladder platform to fight the blaze.

Children are suspected of starting Friday evening's fire as a group of them had been told to leave the site by security staff not long before the blaze started.

Firefighters were called to the hospital at 7.30pm after reports that a single storey wooden building on the site was on fire.

As smoke billowed over the town centre, three fire crews from the Colchester station were joined by crews from Wivenhoe, Nayland and a smaller off-road appliance from Manningtree.

The fire was put out by 8.30pm but crews remained on the scene for another hour to make sure it was out.

During the blaze, drinkers on the balcony of the Hole in the Wall pub had a grandstand view of the scene.

Residents living near the hospital are becoming increasingly fed up with problems at the hospital, which closed in 1993.

Apart from fires, the site has been plagued by vandals and the buildings are also used by vagrants.

A scheme to develop a supermarket on the site has been abandoned and now a housing development is expected to take the former hospital's place.

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