Aspen/Colorado (30/12). Thousands of residents in Aspen, Colorado were left without heat during near-zero degree weather after, possibly green activists from an environmental group, attacked the city’s gas system, authorities said Monday. The police and the FBI are investigating.
The vandals apparently attacked three separate Black Hills Energy gas lines, one in Aspen and two in Pitkin County, leaving around 3,500 residents shivering in their homes Saturday night, The Aspen Times reported.
The Aspen Police Department said the words “Earth first!” were written on one pipe near Aspen. It’s unclear if the environmental group “Earth First!” was behind the vandalism.
“It’s almost, to me, an act of terrorism,” Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper told The Aspen Times. “It’s trying to destroy a mountain community at the height of the holiday season. This wasn’t a national gas glitch. This was a purposeful act.”
Aspen assistant police chief Bill Linn believes the vandals would have to be familiar with the gas system to pull off the scheme. Expert view that the extremists groups are extensively conduct surveillance and study their targets.
“They tampered with flow lines,” Linn said. “They turned off gas lines.”
Police scrambled to distribute thousands of space heaters to residents while Black Hill Energy continued working Tuesday to restore the gas.
Aspen is expected to reach a low of negative four degrees Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
The FBI has stepped in to help investigate the matter.
EarthFirst! eco-terrorist group
The eco-extremists are the only domestic eco-terror group listed by the Department of Homeland Security as the only eco-terror group is known for its actions to harm public safety. “EarthFirst! is on the extreme spectrum of radical eco-groups.”, said an expert on leftist extremists. “The endangerment of life and acts of sabotage is a growing trend on the far-left.”
Aimed of achieving total economic system collapse the groups nihilistic worldview is your basic version of communism, he added.
