Street of dreams
WOODINVILLE, Wash. (AP) - Crews battled fires early Monday at four multimillion-dollar show homes in the Maltby area north of Woodinville, and a sign with the initials of a radical environmental group was found at the scene, an official said.
The sign, which had the initials of the Earth Liberation Front, mocked claims the luxury homes on the “Street of Dreams” were environmentally friendly.
“We’re certain that these homes are arson,” said Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District Seven.
The fires started at a strip of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where developers show off the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping. The homes are later sold.
“We had one fully involved when they arrived, and three others in the ignition stages,” Eastman said. “We stopped two of them from progressing, but there’s three of them that we’re just trying to protect the exposures.”
Eastman says one is a total loss and two homes are substantially damaged. He says fires also were set at a total of six homes. No one was injured.
Eastman says police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating Monday’s string of arsons.
The Street of Dreams is an annual showcase of luxury homes in the Seattle area. The latest development is off Highway 522 at Echo Lake Drive.
Woman on trial for previous suspected ELF fire
The ELF, or Earth Liberation Front, is a loosely organized collection of radical environmentalists authorities say is responsible for other arsons in the Northwest.
A woman is currently trial in Tacoma for a suspected ELF fire at the University of Washington in 2001. Briana Waters, a 32-year-old violin teacher, is accused of serving as a lookout while her friends planted a devastating fire bomb.
The fire is one of the most notorious in a string of arsons that investigators say were perpetrated from the mid-1990s to 2001 by ELF.
No one was hurt in the arson at UW, but its Center for Urban Horticulture was destroyed and rebuilt at a cost of $7 million. It was targeted because the ELF activists mistakenly believed researchers there were genetically engineering trees, investigators said.