THE ruins of a historic old tea room on the outskirts of Teignmouth have been destroyed in an arson attack.Flames and smoke poured into the night sky from the hill at Little Haldon above the town on Sunday evening, while firefighters from Teignmouth and Newton Abbot fought the fierce blaze until the early hours.The timber building, which contained deadly asbestos, sat on its own plot of land on the road towards the golf club, off Higher Exeter Road, and was virtually burned to the ground. Gorse and trees were also damaged.The Haldon Tea House was a relic from the days when such places were very popular around the area, and it had been derelict for some time.'When it was established that asbestos was involved, precautions were taken to ensure the safety of all crew members,' said fire incident commander Scott Leaman.'The fire was very severe by the time we got there.'Firefighters cordoned off the area while they tackled the blaze, and they had to be decontaminated after, and their kit taken away for specialist cleaning.Police later confirmed it was being treated as arson and appealed for any witnesses to come forward.One of the first to spot the blaze was Australian Robert Petrella who was staying with his mother-in-law and father-in-law in Exeter Road, Teignmouth, with his family.'We have recently had wild fires on a much larger scale in Australia, and so at first I thought it was a bonfire in somebody's garden.'I told my father-in-law, and he soon realised it was not a bonfire, and raised the alarm,' said Mr Petralla, who took some video pictures of the blaze.