Our local and regional public safety and government officials should closely follow the progress of the “Street of Dreams” fire investigations. Read carefully the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article headlined “Fire Destroys ‘Street of Dreams’ Homes.” Readers will note there has been some social controversy in the Maltby-Woodinville area where these fires occurred. The controversy involves developments being built over an aquifer, cluster housing, and disagreements over local governments’ efforts to manage growth.
Initial news reports focused on a banner found at one of the crime scenes. The banner suggested the fires might have been set by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group whose methods have been characterized by the FBI as special interest extremism. However, the same P-I article reported, “FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Dave Gomez said the arsons fit the profile of an ELF attack, but cautioned that anyone could have set the fires and claimed it as an ELF action.”
The P-I’s story was accompanied by a series of photos of some of the fire scenes. One photo caption included this statement, “Eco-terrorists are suspected of using explosive devises [sic] to destroy or damage several Street of Dreams show homes, which burned in Woodinville on Monday.”
Arson can be a very complex crime to investigate. Though motive is not an element of the crime (motive need not be proven to get convictions), it is of interest to investigators. It is often useful to use motivation as the ribbon on the package of physical evidence at trial. Motivation sometimes answers the “why?” question jurors often want to have answered. The Insurance Information Institute’s “Issues Updates – Arson” webpage gives a statistical breakdown of the most common motives for arson.
Readers who want to learn more about this complex crime and what motivates people to commit it may want to look at the interFIRE.org website. That site bills itself as, “…the complete resource for fire services, fire insurers, law enforcement and others whose duties involve arson investigation, fire investigation safety and fire scene training.”
Addendum on 03-04-08 at 12:40 PM: New houses becoming popular targets is the headline of a Seattle Times article. The article notes, “But in recent years, new housing developments popping up on the urban fringes have become the most high-profile targets claimed by the ELF.”
Addendum on 03-05-08 at 8:03 AM: Agents comb torched homes for clues is today’s headline in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article by Paul Shukovsky. One piece of information in this article was first reported yesterday: The on-site video surveillance and recording system was not operating. According to yesterday’s information, the intrusion detection systems in some or all of the burned-out homes were left off so real estate agents showing the houses would not be inconvenienced. Investigators will ask, “Was it common knowledge that the intrusion detection and verification systems were not operating? Who knew and when did they know?”
This is really sad.
I remember years ago when I was in the timber industry and the “eco-terrorists” drove spikes through trees, ruined mill equipment, and deliberately ruined engines that were needed for logging. They killed people and put many out of business. Unfortunately, they really won and many loggers were viewed as bad people in a bad industry.
Back then they did not want anyone to log – now they just don’t want anyone to build.
We should be concerned that this problem might surface locally at some point. The best source I know of that will help us quell any concerns might be KOOTENAI ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE
Comment by Stebbijo — March 4, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
Stebbijo,
It is sad. I saw on KREM news tonight that the same builders are also building green homes in the Spokane area. But what got my attention in the original Seattle Times article was the Street of Dreams home developers and builders had run into community opposition because of their septic tanks over the aquifer, their use of cluster housing, and their apparent influence over local government officials. While the focus has been on ELF, I doubt seriously that the investigators are ruling out other possibilities such as arson for profit/insurance. It’s going to take the investigators a while to shovel, sift, identify, bag and mark the evidence. But you can bet every cop and fire investigator and insurance investigator has been told to touch base with all their sources regularly to try and identify who was behind these fires.
Comment by Bill — March 4, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
I heard on KXLY radio today, that the Daily Kos, the extreme liberal web site, is calling the arsonists “Anti-Sprawl Activists”. Wow, they are really trying to improve their image!
Comment by mary — March 4, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
I seriously doubt the Daily Kos knows who the arsonists are.
Comment by Bill — March 4, 2008 @ 7:55 pm
Bill and Mary,
I hear you. When the eco-terroists succeed they also succeed in a “arson for profit/insurance” delemna.
So, I guess it depends on how good your Fire Marshal is – within your area and if he really wants to work or not. Sometimes they are not any good. My point being is these wackos want to really cause havoc – they can, and the folks in trouble can use them to their advantage.
When they change their name like to “Anti-Sprawl Activists” – it does not really matter, it’s all the same . They destroy – one way or another.
But – an interesting development. We should be watching rural housing if it burns and then see if there is a real/qustionable issue.
Comment by Stebbijo — March 4, 2008 @ 8:00 pm
P.S. On second thought – does not really matter if the fire is “rural” or not.
Comment by Stebbijo — March 4, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
As long as the news articles out of Seattle have timely and relevant stories about the Street of Dreams fires, I’m going to append story links to the main body of this post.
Comment by Bill — March 5, 2008 @ 8:13 am