Posted By: Mira Trapper
What are the odds the arsonists use energy oil to - 01/16/09 05:18 PM
CAN oil exec's home firebombed (Edmonton Sun)‏
Edmonton Sun
Grandson's wail of outrage sums up feelings of loss after fire
destroyed ex-Syncrude boss's home, possessions
By ANDREW HANON
Tue, January 13, 2009
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2009/01/13/8005011-sun.html
Two-year-old Abraham expressed his family's anguish best.
When he arrived at the burned-out shell of his grandparents' southwest
Edmonton home yesterday, all Abraham could do was let out an outraged
wail.
His grandpa, former Syncrude president Jim Carter, was so emotional
that he could only read a prepared statement.
"My wife and I are deeply saddened by the loss of our home and our
personal possessions," Carter said after wiping tears from his eyes.
Then, as if trying to find the silver lining, he added: "We are
grateful to have been spared injury."
On Saturday, while Carter, who retired from the oil industry in 2007,
and his wife Lorraine Bray were out, someone threw two Molotov
cocktails at their home. Within minutes it was engulfed in flames and
by the time firefighters arrived, nothing could be saved.
As Carter and Bray sifted through the ashes of the life they built
together, investigators were trying to figure out what reason someone
would have to throw Molotov cocktails at their $850,000 home.
"At the moment," Carter said, "we have very little information about
what may have transpired or why. We may be in a position to comment
further when we know more."
Edmonton police spokesman Patrycia Thenu said yesterday that
investigators are still interviewing witnesses. One person reported
seeing four youths running from the area.
The attack, she said, seems to have no connection to any previous
arsons in the city.
But when the home of one of Alberta's most powerful energy-sector
executives is fire-bombed, it raises the ugly spectre of
eco-terrorism.
Saturday's attack comes one week after the fourth bomb attack on
Calgary-based EnCana's natural gas operations in northeastern B.C.
University of Alberta eco-terrorism expert Paul Joosse says it's far
too early in the investigation to say if Carter's house was targeted
because of his ties to Big Oil, but acknowledged that green radicals
have made similar strikes in the past.
Joosse said that in the U.S. the Earth Liberation Front, which
promotes guerilla warfare tactics to save the planet from polluters,
"has conducted a series of arson attacks against prominent companies
and members of society."
However, he highly doubts there's any link between the attack on
Carter's house and the EnCana bombings, which he says are more likely
being perpetrated by someone angry with toxic sour gas development in
a farming area than a radical ecological campaign.
And while it's the only one to be completely razed, Carter's home is
only the latest in a list of city homes firebombed in recent months,
some of which appear to be utterly random.
Last summer four homes in the same area of Mill Woods were hit with
Molotov cocktails. It started up again last week, when another home
was nailed twice in the same day.
Smaller, seemingly random arson attacks plagued the city last year. In
May and June, 22 small fires were set along a stretch of Stony Plain
Road.
But whatever the motive behind the attack on Carter's house - whether
it's eco-terrorism, sick thrill-seeking or any other excuse, one thing
is certain.
A family has been devastated, a lifetime of mementoes destroyed.
There's no way to adequately describe their sense of loss.
Just ask little Abraham.