SUTTER CREEK, Calif. (AP) -- An early morning fire at new apartment complex may be the work of radical environmentalists who also claimed responsibility for several recent Northern California arsons, officials said Monday.
The fire at the 128-unit Pinewoods apartment complex broke out around 3 a.m., Sutter Creek Police Chief Robert Duke said Monday. Only two of the apartments were occupied, and a fire suppression system helped keep the damage confined, he said. Sutter Creek is about 45 miles east of Sacramento.
``There were seven individual fires and some kind of incendiary device with very, very crude triggering mechanisms,'' Duke said.
Graffiti that said ``We will win _ ELF,'' was found near the fire, he said. ELF is the acronym for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.
An FBI-led task force is investigating whether a string of recent fires are the work of ELF. The first of those fires was in December at three homes under construction in a Lincoln housing development. Less than a month later, five firebombs were found by a construction crew working at an Auburn office building.
ELF claimed responsibility for the firebombs at those two sites in letters to local newspapers.
Duke said the task force is investigating whether the Sutter Creek fire was related to the earlier blazes.
