POLICE and fire investigators are investigating the cause of a blaze that destroyed an empty nursing home yesterday afternoon.

The Mount Pleasant Grange home in Tudhoe Moor, near Spennymoor, was closed three years ago under a Durham County Council modernisation programme.

The building was well alight when three fire crews arrived from Spennymoor and Bishop Auckland shortly before 4pm yesterday.

Fire brigade spokesman Andy Whitehead, station manager for the Sedgefield district, said: "The building was badly damaged and the roof had completely gone on one of the wings. The cause was possibly suspicious."