Were Wash. Homes Burned In Earth's Name?

Eco-Terrorism Eyed As Likely Motive Behind Blaze That Destroyed Luxury Model Homes

(CBS/AP)  Custom home builder Grey Lundberg shook his head at the charred remains of the $2 million dream house his company built with recycled waste wood and other environmentally friendly products.

The project earned a five-star "Built Green" rating, granted by a builder's group for making construction choices that help the environment. That effort was mocked by whomever burned down the house and two others early Monday. They left behind a sign that read, "Built Green? Nope black!"

"It's just so ironic. I can't even begin to fathom that mentality," Lundberg said. "We were trying to demonstrate a better way to build out here."

The homes are in a development near the headwaters of Bear Creek, which is home to endangered chinook salmon. Opponents of the development had questioned whether the luxury homes could pollute the creek and an aquifer that is a drinking water source, and whether enough was done to protect nearby wetlands.

"Ironically, the carbon footprint of whoever did this now seems larger than the problem they were trying to fix," Lundberg told CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

ELF is known for trying to cause economic damage to companies or organizations it considers to be harming the environment. The group has no organized structure or leadership; typically, autonomous cells of activists take "direct actions" such as arsons and claim responsibility on behalf of ELF.

The fire north of Woodinville, a rural suburb northeast of Seattle, was apparently set by the Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. The group's initials were on the sign, a sheet with red spray-painted letters.

The sheriff's office estimated that Monday's pre-dawn fires did $7 million in damage to the "Street of Dreams," a row of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where tens of thousands of visitors last summer eyed the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping. Three homes were destroyed and two suffered minor fire or smoke damage.

The FBI was investigating the fires as a potential domestic terrorism act, said FBI spokesman Rich Kolko in Washington, D.C.

Crews removed incendiary devices found in the homes, Snohomish County District 7 Fire Chief Rick Eastman said. Later, however, Kelvin Crenshaw, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Seattle, said there was no evidence such devices had been used.

No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn in the wooded subdivision and were still smoldering by early afternoon.

The Building Industry Association of Washington and the FBI were offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

"If you just stop and think about the lives that you're touching when you do something like this, it's unbelievable selfishness," Lundberg said.

Many cities have events similar to the Seattle Street of Dreams, which has been held since the 1980s. Advertising for last summer's show focused on the environmentally friendly aspects of the homes, which were smaller than some of the houses featured in years past.

The homes that burned were between 4,200 and 4,750 square feet, and were on sale at seven-figure prices.

"We are stunned by this event, and we thank God that each of the homes were unoccupied and that there were no apparent injuries," Seattle Street of Dreams Inc. President John Heller said in a news release.

The sign left behind said, "McMansions in RCDs r not green," a reference to rural cluster developments.

Since 1990, more than 1,200 criminal acts in the U.S. have been attributed to ELF and its sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front, said FBI spokesman Bill Carter.

Most notorious was a 2003 fire that destroyed an apartment complex near the University of California, San Diego, causing $50 million in damage.

In 2005 and 2006, federal authorities charged more than a dozen people involved in an ELF cell known as "the Family" and centered near Olympia, Wash., and Eugene, Ore. The group was responsible for at least 17 fires around the West from 1996 to 2001 - including the 1998 destruction of a lodge at the Vail ski resort in Colorado, a fire that caused $12 million in damage.

A federal jury in Tacoma was deliberating Monday in the case of another accused ELF activist. Briana Waters could face at least 35 years if convicted of helping to firebomb the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001.

In another case out of Portland, Ore., environmental activist and former fugitive Tre Arrow pleaded not guilty Monday to ecoterrorism charges and was ordered held as a flight risk and public danger.

Investigators were not immediately aware of any evidence linking the fires to either criminal case, Seattle FBI agent Fred Gutt said.

Waters' lawyer, Robert Bloom, asked the judge to declare a mistrial Monday morning, citing the possibility that the fires - and their ensuing publicity - could influence the jury.

"It is inconceivable that anybody who is supporting Briana's case could have been responsible for this," Bloom said.

The judge rejected Bloom's request.

Waters, a 32-year-old violin teacher from Oakland, Calif., is accused of serving as a lookout while her friends planted the firebomb, which caused $7 million in damage. The horticulture center was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically engineering trees, investigators said.

Tre Arrow is accused of helping to destroy concrete-mixing trucks at Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. in Portland in April 2001 and of firebombing logging trucks at Schoppert Logging Co. in Eagle Creek near Mount Hood in June 2001.

ELF has timed attacks with criminal cases in the past. A few days before Jeff Luers was to be tried in 2001 on charges he torched three SUVs at a Eugene, Ore., car dealership, ELF activists hit the same dealership again. Luers was convicted.

[mountainzen]

People forget--civil disobedience means you''re willing to turn yourself in and be prosecuted. So turn yourself in and show you''re not afraid of what you''ve done.
Do the crime, do the time.

[libsrweak]

liberals would go so far as killing you to save you..go figure..

[oldpilot954]

Lay the blame where it belongs -- someone wants to cause destruction. Ecology is just n excuse to destroy things.

[ann3332]

This is outrageous these irresponsible perpatrator that commit this should be arrested and put behind bar. this is no reason for this at all

[michellem99-2009]

I hate the fact that rents are so high and that they build homes to throw the poor in to the streets. This burning of buildings is an act of terrorism. We need to build places for the poor.

[chad55555]

I admit humans must face the fact that this earth is in danger of all kinds but doing this is wrong.MOTHER NATURE WILL DEFEND THIS EARTH WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT,THE EARTH WILL FIGHT BACK AND DESTORY MOST LIFE AND START ALL OVER AGAIN. IT HAPPENS EVERY FEW THOUSANDS YEARS,IT''S ABOUT THAT TIME AGAIN.

[keithepike]

I will follow this investigation of the fire because of the conspiracey theroy.It has happend during a houseing slump and those millons from insurance might be a motive. anybody can make a sigh and spray paint. I bet CBS investigating reporters can find the facts out.

[wango2007-2009]

Posted by USAyesterday
Also, the ELF is yet another example of a political fringe element, extreme in their idealism. And it is very clear that idealism, of any kind, clouds logical thought.

-------------------

Yes, you are right about this I believe.

Most people think of Liberal/Conservative as being at opposite ends of a line. The truth is that political ideology is a circle. At the top of the circle is where Liberial/Conservative moderates meet. At the bottom (opposite) the Liberal ELF types meet with the Conservative survivalist types.

It is nearly impossible to put these sorts of social and political things into perspective unless you consider the the Liberal/Conservative dynamics which are foundational to what motivates political and social action.

[andor3]

USAyesterday said: "... a true environmental activist would not set fire to all those homes as the toxins from the fire(s) would create more damage to the environment than these houses ever would."

good point! looks like this is more likely insurance fraud or someone trying to make ELF look bad. There is not much evidence to link this to ELF... for starters there should be a suspect, and that suspect should have ELF ties, before there is any real suspicion. A hand written sign means nothing

[zykracosmos]

Also Wango,
You are the one issuing "ad hominem attacks" as you call them with your relentless pursuit of trying to catagorize all Americans as either liberal or otherwise (I''m not sure what you think you are). Americans do not fit neatly into two camps of philosophy, although it is more convenient to try and paint that picture. It just isn''t so. It shows a close-mindedness that skews and biases the opinions of the person who functions by that imaginary division.