The flames were out and the smoke had cleared, but for the investigators trying to find out who was responsible for the series of arsons that reduced much of the Hunters Brooke subdivision to charred ruins, there were more questions than answers on the day after the fires.
"We have not been able to rule out anything at this point," W. Faron Taylor, a deputy state fire marshal, said of the largest residential arson in state history. "We have no evidence at this point that leads us to a specific individual or group."
Firefighters douse the smoldering remains of new homes in a controversial Indian Head development. Ten homes were destroyed and 16 damaged in what officials said was the largest residential arson case in Maryland history.
(James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)
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The fires that destroyed 10 unoccupied homes and damaged 16 more in the Mason Springs area in western Charles County were reported just before 5 a.m. Monday, authorities said. By Tuesday, investigators had concluded that fires in seven of the homes were deliberately set, but they declined to reveal further details about the fires.
For years before construction began, plans for Hunters Brooke engendered fierce opposition from environmentalists, who say the development will harm a wetland known as the Araby Bog. The 6.5-acre wetland filters waters that run into the Mattawoman Creek and is home to endangered insect species and rare plants, environmentalists said.
Investigators said this week that they do not know whether the crime was an act of "eco-terrorism" -- but that possibility prompted the FBI to join the review. Some radical environmental groups, such as the Earth Liberation Front, have claimed responsibility for arsons in the past.
"We haven't narrowed it down to any group, persons or organization," said Barry Maddox, a spokesman with the FBI, which had dozens of agents working out of a mobile crime lab at the scene. "I don't want to dwell on . . . eco-terrorism."
Authorities also were investigating whether the arsons could be a hate crime -- a possibility suggested by the fact that most of the damaged homes had been purchased by blacks. However, no police report was filed about an incident before the fires, in which a racial slur was spray-painted on one damaged property, and some investigators said they did not believe the fires were racially motivated.
"Apparently, that [theory] has no merit," Taylor said.
Capt. Joseph Montminy of the Charles County Sheriff's Office said the number of racial, religious and ethnic slurs has risen in the county in recent years, but this may be attributable simply to population growth. He said graffiti is common at construction sites.
"Sometimes it's kids spray-painting swastikas or racial things, and a lot of times they don't even really know what it means -- not to discount the seriousness of it," Montminy said.
Firefighters responding before dawn Monday morning noticed a blue van leaving the subdivision on Hunters Brooke Drive, said Charles County Sheriff Frederick E. Davis. His office issued a bulletin about the van to county deputies and to the Maryland State Police. As of Tuesday, the van's occupants were not considered suspects, Davis said.
For those who planned to move into the new homes in the Hunters Brooke neighborhood and many others who live amid the rolling rural landscape of woods and swamps in the Indian Head area, the arsons were a shock.
"We've been down here for 25 years, and it's probably the worst thing that ever happened," said Kay O'Connor, a retiree from nearby Marbury. "It's terrible."
Some saw the crime as a statement against development. Many residents, who acknowledged the fire is a tragedy, said they wanted to keep growth from marching south through Charles County and disrupting their rural setting. Signs scattered along Route 225 declare: "Our rights: No Cookie Cutter Sprawl" and "Don't Trash West County." Residents battled successfully to keep out a 4,600-home development in Chapman's Forest along the Potomac River in the 1990s.
