‘Street of Dreams’ homes burned by blaze
Monday, March 3, 2008
By TIM ROBINSON / KING 5 News and Associated Press
WOODINVILLE, Wash. – An early morning fire still burning at the “Street of Dreams” model luxury home development in Echo Lake just north of Woodinville has destroyed at least three homes, and officials believe a well-known arsonist group is responsible.
No injuries have been reported in the three-alarm fire, which started around 5 a.m. Monday.
Snohomish County District Seven Chief Rick Eastman said a sign saying ELF was left at the scene. ELF or Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for other arsons, including one at the University of Washington in 2001 for which a woman is now on trial in Tacoma.
Eastman said some of the homes were still under construction and no one was living in the homes at the time. Three homes were completely destroyed and one home had heat and smoke damage. Eastman said fires also were set at a total of six homes.
Eastman said that the fires were suspicious because they were set in multiple places in separate homes. Firefighters were letting the fires burn out for fear they could possibly be booby-trapped.
“I’m not letting crews get in the buildings. It’s a defensive fire right now,” said Eastman. “We heard several explosions inside of there, so we’re not sending any crews in for the fear that they are booby trapped…We’re in a contain mode.”
A 5-ft. by 5-ft. sign found nearby the scene read “Built Green? Nope BLACK! McMansions + RCD’s r not green. ELF” RCD means rural cluter development.
Eastman says police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigating.
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.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_030308WAB_street_dreams_fires_LJ.1a79d3a7.html
Filed under: Uncategorized
This past summer I was sitting in an airport in Pennsylvania, stranded with another out of luck passenger who, as it turned out, worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms. She saw the book I was reading, Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking The End of Nature, and suspiciously asked me if I was a member of ELF.
ELF gives us people trying to do real good a bad name and does nothing but hamper the cause. Do they often times have a point? Sure, we all do. I hate hummers, I hate sprawl. Am I going to burn down everything I hate. No, I would set the world ablaze and climate change is taking care of that just fine.
I agree. I think the members of ELF are acting out of a place of anger and fear. Any action coming from that frame of mind is bound to cause anger and fear.
I can empathize with their frustrations, but violence is never the answer.
You have to ask yourself, what would Gandhi do?
S
I agree JP – I fielded several emails and texts today about why “you bleepin environmental activists are bleepin nuts and have lost your minds” ELF takes away from constructive activism and serves as a hypocritical approach to social good.
I say that all of us who work hard for social and environmental equality need to work harder to overshadow ELF and other eco-terrorism efforts – that’s the approach I intend to take. We must keep fighting the good fight.
Peace
News like this is just as disappointing and enervating as when the dirty, unjust status quo of politics and business emerge triumphant. In fact, it is more frustrating – for as has been mentioned, the great majority of people who do not empathize with our cause (the cause of ALL humanity) cannot distinguish between the varied spectrum of “environmental” activists.
This is not activism. We said it when Bush went to war under the name of all Americans, and we’ll say it again: Not In Our Name . The stakes are higher than ever in this desperate battle for a bright future, we have no time to lose! Nor can we spare the goodwill of the newspaper-reading, TV-watching public (read: nearly everyone), who will lump all “greenies” together, just as many Americans lumped all Iraqis under the banner of “terrorism.”
Rarely do we take the time and effort to distinguish between “big, bad corporations” who spoil our home for profit. So, how can we expect people to see the differences between activists like us, who work for the common good with integrity and positive passion, and the destructive, wasteful, short-sighted ELF?
Please stop trying to “liberate” our Earth, for in these acts of violence and waste you undermine the work of her most ardent allies in your stereotype, which enchains us all.
Keep in mind, EFL may not be to blame for the fires…could be insurance fraud. I’m not saying I lean either way, just putting it out there. Check out the SLOG (The Stranger’s blog) for more discussion on this and other explanations.
On another note, I was listening to the 5 o’clock news on King tonight and something the anchorman said made me drop the plate I was washing. He said something along the lines of the fires being “tragically devastating.”
Leaving thousands of people in the Superdome is tragically devastating. Burning up some unoccupied homes in a suburb, well, I wouldn’t describe it as tragically devastating.
I’d be more apt to call burning some 4,000+ sqft homes wasteful.
Proves a point about where we are as a society, or where people with power want us to be as a society. We need to change the focus from consumerism and consumption to sustainability and helping those in need.
I picked up a copy of the P-I today and was amazed to find damn near three whole pages devoted to the fires.
At a conference a few years ago I found myself in a long debate about “blowing shit up” in the name of environmental activism. The person debating for said, “There is no bad media.” While I would vehemently deny that claim, it is interesting to see the spectacular coverage the act is recieving. Even us, here on Seattle Dirt are contributing to the cause celebre, giving ELF (if it was indeed them) a whole lot of press. I certainly had never heard of the ecologically sensitive and controversial housing development, but I sure have now.
In a way, the people responsible are getting exactly what they wanted.
I know the melting ice caps aen’t getting three pages in the P-I anytime soon. Maybe they need to melt all over some rich guy’s house.
More discussion from the P-I concerning the sub-division arsons brings to light additional groups opposed to development:
Many unhappy with cluster sub-divisions:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353724_cluster05.html
Do we need to do something violent to get a little media coverage?
Perhaps, but I would argue that we need to lean harder on our existing media to have them cover the important issues, like sprawl and loss of open space, and we need to support new media that strive to cover issues like this — in walks seattleDIRT to do just that! Send us your story ideas and thoughts about environmental and social justice.
An interesting editorial from the Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2004263890_jdl06m.html
If walking by the “Street of Dreams” fire and you could spit to extinguish the blaze, would you? Hmmmm.
I don’t know if you are all still interested but here is an editorial we wrote for Down To Earth – http://dte.spokesmanreview.com/?p=527#more-527
After reading this article about the Echo Lake fires, I don’t understand these senseless acts committed by these people. I certainly do not want to rush to judgment and offer my apology if it was not the ELF. But if it WAS eco-terrorists, this stunt does NOTHING to the attitude of people like me who only dream of living in a beautiful home like those found at Street of Dreams. I don’t hesitate for a minute to have an SUV, 5000 squre foot home and a power boat. I pass these people off as extremists and they have absolutely no valid argument for their actions. Am I supposed to beat everyone senseless who doesn’t agree with me, then expect them to passionately join me in my beliefs? Where’s the logic?
I read this e-paper hoping to at least get an understanding you “green” folks and your beliefs and hope to find illumination in doing so. These eco-terrorists have hijacked your beliefs and twisted them to serve themselves. So far I have not found valid argument for the change that ELF and eco-terrorists so violently seek.
Wanna convince me to change? Show me a better way. Show me a better means of transportation. Show me a better fuel alternative. Talk to me, I will listen!! But don’t burn my house down!! Because if you do, I will never change and I am your enemy !!! NOT your ally!!
Thanks for listening.