Four multimillion-dollar show homes from a suburb north of Seattle were engulfed by
flames on Monday.
According to officials, a sign from a radical environmental group
was found at the scene.
The sign bore the initials of the Earth Liberation Front
group. According to video images of the sign aired by KING-TV, it was mocking
the claims that the luxury homes on the “Street of Dreams” were environmentally
friendly.
The sign said: "Built Green? Nope black!" the
Associated Press reports.
The fires began at a part of model homes, unoccupied and
furnished luxurious where the latest in high-end housing, interior design and
landscaping are presented by developers. The homes are sold later on.
According to Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District
Seven, the fires were set in many places in different houses, looking
suspicious.
He confirmed the fact that the ELF sign was found at the
scene of the fires in the community north of Woodinville. Here some of the
homes are still under construction.
Earth Liberation Front is a loose organization made out of
radical environmentalists which was found in 1992 in the United Kingdom and spread to Europe
by 1994.
Now is an international movement with actions in over a
dozen countries.
In 1996, on Columbus Day, the ELF made its first appearance
in the United States through
some actions made at a public relations office and a McDonald’s restaurant in Oregon.
Authorities say that they are also responsible for other
arsons in the Northwest.
A woman is on trial in Tacoma
for a fire at the University
of Washington in 2001
which was possibly the work of ELF.
Briana Waters, a 32-year-old violin teacher, is accused of
letting her friends put a fire bomb.
The fire is one of the most famous and is part from a string
of arsons which according to investigators were committed from the mid-1990s to
2001 by ELF.
No one was injured during the arson at the University of Washington,
but its Center for Urban Horticulture had to be rebuilt with $7 million as it
was destroyed.
The investigators said that it
was the target of the ELF because its members thought it was the place where
researchers were genetically engineering trees.
