ELF sign found at homes

SEATTLE – Federal investigators said Tuesday they had uncovered no clear leads on how arsonists lit the fires that destroyed three luxury homes and damaged two others in a suburb outside Seattle.

The only definitive clue was a spray-painted sheet found at the scene of the Monday’s predawn fires bearing the initials of the Earth Liberation Front, Kelvin Crenshaw, special agent in charge of the Seattle office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told a news conference near the crime scene north of Woodinville.

ELF is a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s.

“The only thing that is consistent to this point with what we know as an ELF fire is the banner,” Crenshaw said.

The banner mocked the claims made by the homes’ builders that the houses were environmentally friendly. It read: “Built Green? Nope black. McMansions and RCDs r not green,” a reference to rural cluster developments.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office estimated that the fires did $7 million in damage. The unoccupied homes were between 4,200 and 4,750 square feet and for sale at prices up to nearly $2 million.

Crenshaw said investigators had found no evidence that incendiary devices were used to set the fires, contrary to an earlier report from a local fire chief.