December 6, 2004
By Joshua Partlow and Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Authorities said a dozen unoccupied new houses were gutted and nearly 30 others were damaged this morning when a series of suspicious fires swept through a Charles County subdivision that has been the focus of a long-running environmental dispute.
The fires, in the county's Mason Springs section, were reported just before 5 a.m. in the Hunters Brooke subdivision, where some new homes are priced at about $500,000. About 30 houses were touched by fire or smoke and 12 were "destroyed," said W. Faron Taylor, Maryland's deputy state fire marshal.
A dozen unoccupied houses were gutted and nearly 20 others were damaged, authorities said.
At least four of the fires have been ruled arsons, while the cause of the others remained under investigation this afternoon. Local, state and federal investigators were participating in probe.
No injuries were reported.
Tony Gourley, vice president of the Lennar Co., which is building the subdivision, said that there were 50 homes under construction and plans for hundreds more.
More than 100 firefighters and investigators from Maryland and Virginia responded to the blazes. "Around the state of Maryland, we have not been confronted by this many houses damaged in a single development in 20 years of my experience," Taylor said.
The houses that were destroyed or damaged were unoccupied. One family in the new neighborhood was evacuated from a house that was not hit by the fire, said Nina Voehl, a spokeswoman for the county.
Environmental groups and some county residents sued the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers last year, claiming they had violated the Clean Water Act by granting permits that allowed construction at the site.
Critics of the development argue that construction will damage Araby Bog, a roughly seven-acre ecosystem that includes threatened species of insects and plants.
"It's really the last viable Sweet Bay magnolia bog in the world," said Ellie Cline, a Charles County resident who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Jacque Hightower, 32, said he and his wife were scheduled to close on a $450,000, five-bedroom home in the development this week. Today, he stood at the entrance to the development along Route 225, unable to get close enough to his soon-to-be home to find out if it was one of those damaged or destroyed.
"It's tragic," he said. "This was going to be an early Christmas gift."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38836-2004Dec6.html