Eco-arsonists 'using loophole to avoid big jail term'

Eco-activists blamed for fires that destroyed three environmentally friendly millionaires-row homes and damaged two others may have used only simple materials to exploit a legal loophole and avoid a huge jail sentence, it was claimed today.

Although officials did not rule out the use of accelerants to start the fires, FBI agent Dave Gomez said those responsible might have chosen not to use any incendiary devices, just “available combustibles” such as paper or wood, to avoid long sentences if they ever stood trial.

Using a destructive device during a federal offence carried a mandatory 30-year sentence, Mr Gomez said, “so whoever committed this crime may have been cognisant of that”.

A sign left at the scene bearing the initials ELF, for Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of radical environmentalists, has led to speculation that the fires on Monday were the result of eco-terrorism.

The announcement that there was no evidence of incendiary devices contradicted a report from a fire chief the day before.

“It would appear the motive and possibly the way these fires were set were with available combustibles,” said Kelvin Crenshaw, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The sign – a spray-painted sheet – was the only definitive clue in the pre-dawn fires. The banner mocked claims made by the builders of the homes north of Woodinville, Washington, about 15 miles north east of Seattle, that the large houses were environmentally friendly. It read: “Built Green? Nope black. McMansions and RCDs r not green,” a reference to rural cluster developments.

A suspected ELF activist is on trial in Tacoma, Washington, over the 2001 firebombing of the University of Washington’s Centre for Urban Horticulture.

The FBI has no evidence linking Monday’s fires to the trial of Briana Waters, a 32-year-old violin teacher from Oakland, California, who is accused of serving as a lookout while her friends planted the firebomb.

Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office estimated that the Woodinville fires caused $7.2m in damage to the “Street of Dreams”, a row of unoccupied, furnished luxury model homes where tens of thousands of visitors last summer eyed the latest in high-end housing, interior design and landscaping.

The homes were between 4,200 and 4,750 sq ft and for sale for nearly $2m.

The fires were the first Seattle-area attack linked to ELF since January 2006, when a bedsheet bearing a threatening message and the ELF signature was left at a fire that destroyed a mansion under construction on Camano Island north of Seattle, Mr Gomez said.