May 19, 2005 -- Three suspicious fires early yesterday in Long Island's ritzy Gold Coast area prompted fire officials to investigate whether environmental terrorists were again targeting the neighborhood.
Nobody was seriously injured as the fires swept through two Oyster Bay homes under construction and a waterfront maintenance shed owned by the Town of Oyster Bay.
Veteran firefighters who battled the blazes yesterday don't believe the fires were coincidental.
Sources said they were investigating whether the fires were the work of environmental terrorists, such as the Earth Liberation Front, which has been suspected of torching other Long Island homes.
"I know environmental terror groups have done things like this in the past, but there is no evidence at this point in the investigation," said Vincent McManus, commanding officer of the Nassau Fire Marshal's investigations bureau.
Vincent Bellissimo, second assistant chief of the Oyster Bay Volunteer Fire Department, was injured slightly yesterday when a ceiling panel from the shed struck him in the head.
The first blaze, at 2:20 a.m., was in a new $1 million home. The second broke out nearby at a construction site where the frames of two houses caught fire. That blaze spread to the house next door, and the family of four fled as the heat shattered their bedroom windows.
"The windows were exploding and the shingles were popping, and my husband started yelling 'The house is on fire! The house is burning! Get out!' " said Justinne Jedzinak, 24.
The fires came as a senior FBI official, John Lewis, told a Senate committee yesterday that environmental and animal-rights activists who have turned to arson and explosives are the nation's top domestic terrorist threat.
