(US-md) Arson suspected in fires that damaged dozens of homes

[Animalconcerns Community]

INDIAN HEAD, Md. - (KRT) - Until Monday morning, Hunters Brooke looked
much like thousands of subdivisions under construction in the American
countryside.

Within a few hours, the dreams of prospective homeowners were reduced
to smoking rubble, as arson-driven fires destroyed completed and
partially completed houses and terrified a small group of residents
who had already moved into the community.
...
ATF spokesman Mike Campbell said the crime scene was probably the
largest in area and number of structures ever to be probed by the
agency's national response team.

The second-largest, he said, was at a ski resort in Vail, Colo., in
1998 and resulted in $12 million in damage. Responsibility for that
fire was claimed by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an organization
of radical environmentalists that has also burned condominiums in La
Jolla, Calif., and a lumber-company office in Oregon in 1999.

Maddox and the others declined to single out ecoterrorism as the
Maryland motive.

"We're well aware of the ELF organization and other environmental
organizations," the FBI spokesman said.

full story:
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/nation/10362376.htm

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