It is wrong to burn houses.

It is wrong that builders over build again and again simply because they want to be richer.

It is also wrong that the govenment is not able to stop the over build.

These ELFs (aka Environmental Lunatic Fringe)in acts like this send tons of carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses into the atmosphere, waste water resources, and endanger not only the lives of brave firemen and other responders, but other people who need this emergency services .... and they feel good about their supposed service to humanity. One could respect Ghandi for his passive resistance, but no one can respect these Whacko's, their tnnel vision and these despictable acts.

Yeah, I've always thought that these people are basically a bunch of self-righteous zealots who deep down inside have a jealously complex that ends up coming out in the form of lashing out at others' success, aka burning down nice houses, torching nice vehicles, etc., in the name of saving the planet. What these faux-activists would never do of course, is reveal themselves. They are all basically like scared rats hiding in their squalor-like existence, only coming out in the darkness to lash out at "the system" when no one is looking, what a bunch of angry little kids... I sometimes wonder if daddy played dirty a little too much with these losers when they were growing up...

This ELF organization as a whole really needs some mental help. With all the time ELF spent obtaining the explosives, placing the explosives, endangering brave firefighters lives and the lives of innocent people, they could have been researching how they can more effectively approach the environmental subject. Obviously we are dealing with a very uneducated, ignorant organization who didn't research how many pollutants have been released into the air because of the fires (as noted in the comment above) and traffic backup they caused, etc. A car idling contributes more polutants that a car running. Do they really believe that performing terrorist acts like this one is going to keep people from building large homes? This is a disgusting example of the entire ELF organization.

Was it really ELF?
Maybe it was someone who has an interest in the properties and had concerns about them not selling??

I wonder what the environmental impact of washing tens, if not hundreds of thousands of gallons of water contaminated by the toxic emissions of burning recycled and eco-friendly materials will actually do to the headwaters of Bear Creek and the adjacient watershed areas around the homes? My guess is more damage in one evening than decades of occupied used could have caused.
Way to go ELF. The amount of arsenic and cyanide laiden soot you've just had washed into the ecosystem makes you the biggest threat ti the environment in Woodinville so far this year.

I hate to admit it but my first thoughts were also that this was timely as the homes had not sold yet.....

I definitely disagree with the ELF destructive actions, and wish to make clear that I would never condone what they did.


This does bring up the bigger issue, which I do not see being talked about in the news. I live 1 mile from this fire. I have been here for over 31 years and watched the indiscriminate approval of more and more developments in our fragile area. Our community strongly opposed this development from the beginning, because it endangers our aquafer system, and other environmental concerns. Even though detailed proof was provided by the group that opposed the development, Snohomish County still allowed it.

There were articles in the news about the dangers this development would create in our community, and they were all ignored by the county. I have personally been told by a female Snohomish County employee that, quote: "This county is run by a Good Old Boy system, and is very corrupt".

It is sad that this fire happened, and I believe is counter-productive. At the same time, I would like to see Snohomish County be accountable for their unethical and environmentally corrupt decisions made upon greed for more tax dollars at the expense of the quality of life by existing residents. My taxes have skyrocketed here, yet my quality of life, and that of my community, continues to diminish due to their blatant disregard for the safety of our community and environment. Research into this would prove what I am saying. I would love it if a "60 Minutes" or "20/20" type investigation would expose Snohomish County corruption.

If ELF is responsible, their mission was a partial success. The homes are gone, and they made the news.

But I agree the bigger issue MUST be how we are mismanaging our resources and our balance in this area. What must happen before we see that more reasonable homes with smaller footprints and less square footage are going to be necessary if we are to accommodate housing needs in the future of not just the Pacific Northwest, but the entire world? The insane and insatiable desire for homes that are much too large and costly led to the mortgage crisis (what happened to the days when the bank held you to 30% of your income for your payment?) and will be the stone over which our economy takes a fatal stumble if we don't wake up!

I, too, abhor terrorism in any form. ELF, if responsible, should be made responsible for their destruction. But we also need to make our cities, counties and developers act more responsibly. It is time that the almighty dollar be retired as the driving force for our lives, and that we replace it with reasonable living standards and compassion for the Earth and her other inhabitants.

This has always baffled me. What kind of mentality thinks, "To persuade others to my opinion, I’m going to set fires and blow stuff up." That’s like arguing by volume; it doesn’t work and you look stupid.

There are constructive actions you can take. If you’re destructive, your message gets lost in the mess you make.

I was relieved to hear no one was hurt, but horrified by the fact that the firemen wouldn’t go into the houses because they heard other explosions inside and feared booby-traps. The people fighting the fire had absolutely nothing to do with the construction of these houses, and yet they were put in danger. I hope they catch those responsible and that they are punished to the full extent of the law.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

I find it amazing that so many have jumped to the conclusion that ELF was responsible. Sure, there was a note, and in all probability they were responsible, but even the investigators have stopped short of blaming them directly. However many of the posters here, and even KREM news have already assumed that ELF is the culprit. KREM news went so far as to post this headline:

"Eco-terror group torches five million-dollar homes near Seattle"

Talk about irresponsible journalism! KREM blatantly states an unknown as fact.

What the heck has happened to responsible journalism in this country? Does the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" even mean anything to anyone anymore?

*sigh*

Glad my house is brown.

The sad thing here is that they most likely released more CO2 into the environment from the fire than these houses would have otherwise emitted during their lifespan.

whoever has done the deed, is a danger to the environment. Despite the "signature" we should not jump to conclusions. The main thing though is to find the criminals and prosecute them with the maximum letter of the law and if new laws have to be created, it is time that eco harming and cyber criminals should get a lot harder sentences for the damage they are causing.
That brings me to KC's comment regarding the indiscriminate licensing of new building sites.
We are just a few miles up the road from woodinville in a 10-15 year old estate, which was surrounded by horse farms. Now it is houses, houses and more houses, on post stamp sized lots and no green belt left to speak of. Some estates are actually divided in the middle by power lines, as long as they can put another box on something.
It is just so sad to see this beautiful state disappear under wooden boxes with concrete bases.

"It is just so sad to see this beautiful state disappear under wooden boxes with concrete bases."

Says the guy living in a wooden box with concrete base. You nimbys crack me up. If you want a greenbelt buy your own. Don't count on your county government to force your neighbor to provide one for you. I am flabergasted that the fact that landowners are exercising their rights by developing their property is being used to justify the actions of these nutjobs.

Shame on you.

C'mon, use a little critical thinking people! Everyone seems hell-bent on jumping to conclusions that this was actually the ELF, especially in the media and on this board. The vast majority of arsons in this country are for run-of-the-mill reasons, like...(drumroll please) Insurance Fraud! Doesn't anyone wonder about the timing of this thing, that with the current housing market, these $2 million show homes have sat empty and unsold for so long?
Plus, with all the media attention on the arrests of the most prominent ELF "members" over the last couple years, they would seem to be the perfect scapegoat that everyone will believe at face value. A few letters scrawled on a sheet doesn't mean the criminals who actually did this are environmentalists! Its too easy to attack the motivations of supposed ELFs and point out the hypocricies, lets see what the investigation shows. Of course, the feds love to play up the fear of the "evil ecoterrorists" as the next Osama, so I'm sure they're loving all the free propaganda.

I live very close to the area (2 miles or less). I think it is tragic. If these people put their evil to use in a positive manner - just think what they could actually accomplish, perhaps ending world hunger or fighting for world peace.

Let's not jump to conclusions. We do not know that ELF left the signs, we only know that signs were left that said, "ELF". Let's wait and see what the investigation finds.

We were just discussing at a dinner party last night how difficult it was going to be for the Street of Dreams to sell their Multimillion Mansions this year, and than this morning to awake to the news that they had been torched... I think the investors had the same thoughts and ELF made a good scapegoat.

It does not sound logic - "Green" + "Multimillion"
Palm tree roofed cabin sounds green
Cave sounds green
Granite countertop + six bed rooms can not be true green

If it is found ELF is to blame , i hope they throw the book at them .They are no better than any other terrorist .

and it is only going to get worse. Forecasts are for 1,000,000 NEW people in Western Washington in the next 10 years!!! Developers are going to have to build somewhere for all these new people to live.

ELF is the result of the whacked out freakism of liberalism. What possitive results came from the 2000 attack on the U-Dub Hortacultural research center? 4,000 endangered plants and 20 years of Mount St Hellens research destroyed and now eco-friendly designed homes destroyed.

Only a bunch of blind anarchal freaks drunk on the religion of socialist liberalism could do something so stupid.

It's time to deal with ELF as we deal with Al Queda before these freaks start killing people in the name of their radical and insane Earth worship.

These homes are not completely "green". They are called that because they bring in the "green"...money!

They are energy hogs, they rob our environment of natural resources. They have to clear cut all those "developments" to put the McMansions on them, then they use a lot of rock, wood, and over the top finishes to build them. They are only green in the sense that the builders and city get lots of dollars from them.

Why not build smaller, and really build green? Why? Because they would not be splashy enough.
Come to think of it, no has bought these monster homes..what does that tell you?

Th FBI needs to look at all of the people who were involved in building these homes. They saw that there was no chance of selling these ghastly McMansions in this down-turned market and took matters into their own hands. With the ELF trial going on right now, they thought they had a perfect scapegoat. The ELF is not known for leaving spray-painted bedsheets at the scene of their protest actions. They have always issued statements through their "post office" after an event to claim responsibility for it. Hopefully the developers don't have the Feds in their back pocket with the county governments that let them get away with destroying everything that makes the Puget Sound area a wonderful place to live. Or it was that way at least, about 20 years ago...

I just wanted to leave a note about this whole horrible event - I actually went to the Street of Dreams this past summer and walked through these houses with my Dad. I absolutely condemn whoever did this, because the homes were beautiful and represented an extraordinary investment by the builders and architects. Shame on them. My perspective after seeing the homes was, sadly, somewhat in-line with those who chose to destroy these houses: namely, they weren't as "green" as I'd been expecting. (of course, who cares, they don't deserve to be burned, but let me just elaborate...)

At my college we have an experimental "smart home" that is very small and compact, layered with solar panels, and has a very large pair of water catchment barrels. The house is an experiment in green living. When I went to see the "Green" Street of Dreams I was expecting that level of self-sufficient echnology on display. When I actually saw the homes I was fairly dissapointed - just because they seemed like huge mansions with perhaps a few recycled walls. It wasn't a concerted effort to reduce consumer costs and create a self-sufficient energy-generating home. They were beautiful homes though, and it's truly shameful to see them attacked like this.

When I saw this story it just left me with that gut-wrenching feeling, because I'd felt somewhat the same way as this ELF nutjobs, that these houses didn't really decrease the overall carbon footprint of living very much - and weren't built to be self-sufficient energy producers. For the pricetag on those houses, it would have been nice to see more of the very latest technology.

Your reporting on this fire strikes me incredibly naive and lazy. These places were financed at the peak of the "housing boom" and since they were put on the market last year, not single one has sold. The developer was almost certainly tempted to pass his financial liability on to his insurer.

Since greed is the oldest and most powerful human motivator, every student in Journalism 101 is taught to "follow the money" to determine who stands to benefit the most from a story. Apparently you skipped that class. One of the Federal investigators you had on camera even said they have no reason to believe the banner left at the scene was “authentic.” That should have been a red flag for a discerning reporter. Naturally, his bosses are happy to have you out from under foot, chasing “smoke-and-mirrors” ecoterrorists, while they investigate.

I was further astounded that the NBC national broadcast picked up your slovenly reporting. You owe it to the public to examine all the possibilities and let them draw their own conclusions.

These people should rot! These places will all be re-erected and they will use more natural resources to rebuild so what was this all for? Green materials are really a joke because logging is logging and we will always have it because wood is the most renewable resource we have and takes considerable less energy to produce than any other material. Why are we all screaming we are running out of forest? Look and research the facts people! We have more forest land today then when the pilgrims arrived at Plymouth rock simply due to fire prevention alone! That's not including the 8 trees planted for every one cut. Keeping this in mind ,how can we say global warming is contributed to lack of forest? It's a crutch to promote enviromental lock up of our public and private forest, our rights and our own properties at home. People wake up! It's great to be aware and take care of things yes, but be careful because this environmental movement is a wolf dressed in Sheeps clothing.Also has anyone noticed that enviromentalism is almost Wican, and yet we jam this environmental "the sky is falling" to our children in schools? Where is seperation of church and state in this case? Lets wake up people before we bring in the trojan horse and all hell really breaks loose.

the pos responsible should be wasted,end of story.domestic terrorism!!

Why does everyone assume that a larger home can not be truly green? Compared to many homes in the area 4000-4500 square feet is not a Huge home. These homes had energy efficient heating system, recycled flooring, recycled timbers, energy star certified appliances and so much more. You could not even see half of the energy saving and green features that went into these homes at the show, from the insulation and foundation to the driveways and landscaping. One of the homes was even the first 5 star built green rated home in Snohomish county. These home were probably more energy effience and "green" than many 2000 square foot homes in the area.

I agree with the previous post, by "Jon." You cannot assume that this was the work of the ELF, until there has been a thorough forensic investigation.

I am more inclined to believe, as Jon (previous post) said, that the developer may have hired a "hit man" to set these fires and collect the insurance money! Shame on you for your freshman journalism reporting!

I for one do not understand the comcept of building a home large enough to house my entire extended family! (our living space is under 1000 sq feet) But what has burning them to the ground has proven . These were the dream of someone that seemed to be trying to build a better house. I only hope they find out who did the deed and they are punished.

So someone sprays a bed sheet and our local navel gazing news media decides they have nothing to loose by running with the obvious. The FBI should save us some money and just let the reporters handle it all they know who does everything. Given the market today and the mortgage financing ruined by "financial engineers" it would be wise to be very careful. There have been arson events throughout the country. Either way massive publicity has been given to a cause without even a breath of caution. If they didn't do it the ELF will gain a lot of ground unearned.

This green technology didn't include an energy star security system. I would think given the location that would have been a "no-brainer". Well for builders side stepping the codes (as reported by neighbors) I wouldn't expect them to use a few cameras to give them a 24 hour live feed of where they spent so much money. They might have captured a violation or something.

All this money on these dream homes and no web cams. Give me a break.

What are you expecting to see from liberal lefties in Seattle? They are so stupid, and this is only they can do??? Save the planet??? LOL. lets wait until Barak Osama or Hillary will be , seattle will be on fire from liberals like them.

I am sure that they will be NOT guilty; this is Seattle, full of enviermental freaks, a blue state.

If ELF members really want to be "green" they should commit suicide and thereby stop consuming, as overpopulation by humans is what is causing the world crisis in the first place. By burning down those houses (if they did it) they just created an atrocious waste of resources that will no doubt require more trees to be killed to be rebuilt, as inevitably it will be.

As a journalist (1974 BS in Communications, U. of Illinois), I cringe at your use of the word "ecoterrorist." Arson is a serious crime, but it is not terrorism! Please, do the right thing and use the term "eco-arsonists," if you must. But reserve the word "terrorists" for those who deserve that label, who want to kill and terrorize as many people as they can. Don't trivialize or water down the word "terrorists" by using it the way it was used in this story. Thank you.

Sure, its not terrorism until they burn down YOUR house. Then its a major problem..right? Go talk to the builders who sat on the phone all day yesterday with their insurance companys and ask THEM if the think it was simple arson or terrorism. I hate the media as much as anyone when the add exclamation points and pointless adjectives to jack up a story but thats not the case here. If it's not terror, then when does it become terror?? I know the answer. Someone has to die. But then it becomes murder, or does it?

These homes had sprinkler systems, what happened?

If it was ELF, here's my thought:
Gather all those worthless idiots up and air drop them in the frozen tundra with nothing. They love nature. They hate civilization. And they sure as hell hate development. Perfect fit.

On these fires.

Why doesn't someone hire scientists to perform an environmental impact study on these fires. Air pollution, run off (plastics, compters w/lead, mercury, etc.) Report it on the news and show them how much bad they have done vs good.

I agree with a lot of ELF stands for. Over building, over farming, destroying forrests, paving wetlands.

I just wish they could come up with a better way to get their point across. Burning these homes probably created more Co2 the building them did.

I love the comment above by jxp, "If ELF members really want to be "green" they should commit suicide and thereby stop consuming, as overpopulation by humans is what is causing the world crisis in the first place." I don't condone suicide, but true, they should stop consuming and stop having children.

As a sub contractor I would like to thank ELF if they did it. More work, more materials. I bet they went home to their wood houses filled with synthetic carpets, fixtures, etc. And I bet they drove there.

A few points to consider.

1. The proceeds from the sale of these homes were to be donated to the Make a Wish Foundation and the Children's Home Society of Washington. When all is said and done, the children that would have benefitted from the probably $3-5 million donated are the real victims here.

2. Every one of the homes that were destroyed either had a sale pending or had a buyer, according to news reports. Again, the builders had no stake in the profits on these sales, as the money was to be donated to charity.

3. ELF is not a cohesive group with any kind of structure and no real membership requirements. According to Wikipedia, they no longer have a press office to issue statements taking responsibility for their crimes. Whether the people responsible for this are truly ELF or not will likely never be proven for sure.

4. I find terrorism to be appropriate for this kind of crime. They're perpetrating acts of violence to inspire fear and unrest for an ideological purpose. That's terrorism, pure and simple.

Could have been the neighbors.
Could have been the builders.
Could have been any nutcake with a can of paint, a sheet and a can of gasoline.
Could have been ELF, whatever that is, or whomever that is.
Bad form, in any case. What a waste.

Our Armed Forces are fighting the wrong enemy. These fascist terror-mongers are the real threat to America.
They've torched our fast-food franchises, SUVs, lumberyards, research labs, and housing developments. Thanks to them, you can't find a hotel room that hasn't been contaminated with dog droppings. Millions go hungry around the world whilst they feed their pooches gourmet dog food. If they have their way, we'll all be eating spinach for breakfast, lunch and dinner and sleeping in caves.

Those of you who are complaining about those wealthy enough to live in these homes...I don't think you would be complaining if someone gave you one. Are YOU living green? If not, then shut up.

Whoever did it...wrong is wrong no matter how you slice it.

And if it was infact ELF, they have defeated their own purpose. Those who owned the homes will now get the insurance money. GOOD GOING ELF!

I know that whoever did it was just trying to send us a message, and it obviously did. I know that it sent tons of gases into the atmosphere, and it was contradictory. But it obviously didnt help because they are just rebuilding the houses anyways.
I still think it was the company's fault because they turned off the alarms because the landlord kept tripping them up.
But still, who cares if she tripped them up? That doesn't mean you should completely turn off the alarms. And whoever did this must have known that the alarms were turned off because they would not risk the chance that the alarms were on.
As for the house being "green", i give them accolades for all of the green stuff that they had done to the houses. But what about all of the energy that such a big house will have? and 4 car garages? who says that they will be efficient?
Whatever the case, I dont know what to believe about how green those houses are.

Maniacal consumption is the disease. ELF is an uncomfortable symptom. A half century of sitting in a circle sipping slave labor lattes and smiling at one another isn't working. The opulent houses and ELF are both an example of America's loss of imagination.

I checked ELF's website the day after the fires. Right there on the home page was an article titled: ELF FIRES.

http://www.earthliberationfront.com/index.htm

"ELF Fires burned luxury homes on the STreet of Dreams in a suburb near Seattle Monday, and investigators found a spray painted message purportedly left by the Earth Liberation Front"

"If you build it, they will burn it"

"If you build it, they will burn it"