Hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage was caused during a blaze at a household waste dump.

Firefighters battled all night to bring the fire at the recycling centre at Wilson Avenue, Brighton, under control.

But the flames damaged part of the main building, which may now have to be pulled down, and wrecked two diggers worth £135,000 each.

Hundreds of people were turned away from their weekend trip to the skip yesterday.

Part of the facility is expected to reopen today but fire investigators are still trying to find the cause of the blaze.

Experts want to examine CCTV footage from the dump.

Householders were yesterday redirected to recycling sites in Hove, Lewes, Seaford and Newhaven after flames ripped through the depot at 9pm on Saturday.

Between 35 and 40 firefighters were called to tackle the flames. Holes were punched in the roof and side of the building using the aerial ladder platform to help clear the smoke.

Incident Commander Chris Baker said: "You could see the smoke from the top of Wilson Avenue.

"It took us about half an hour to knock back the fire before we started to ventilate the building. There was nothing toxic in there we were worried about but we had to notify the Environment Agency because of the amount of water used."

Neighbours said a thick blanket of smoke settled over the area as the fire raged. David Barrett, of Wilson Avenue, said: "The smoke was like fog and there were fire engines everywhere."

Onyx, which runs the centre on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council, is unsure if the building can be salvaged or if it will have to be pulled down.

As the clear-up operation began yesterday, diggers dragged the rubbish apart to make sure the flames were out.

David Hicks, manager of all 12 Onyx sites in Sussex, said he hoped to partially reopen the site today so people could use the glass and cardboard recycling containers, which were not damaged.