About the film
The House Of Fire is Earth Films’ feature-length documentary about the Earth Liberation Front, the underground eco-sabotage group best known for torching the Vail Ski Area in October of 1998. The film is currently in post-production, with an expected completion date sometime in 2010.
Starting in 1996, with the torching of the Detroit Ranger District office in Detroit, Oregon, the group was involved in a campaign of arson across the West that ultimately totaled tens of millions of dollars in damage. The group targeted an SUV dealership, a horse-slaughter plant, timber company offices, a genetically-modified-tree farm, Bureau of Land Management wild-horse corrals, logging trucks, a meat company and more. They also sabotaged logging machinery, damaged genetically-modified crops and toppled a high-tension electrical tower.
By 2001, the group, always loose-knit at best, had mostly disbanded and ceased its activity. However, the FBI continued its investigation and by 2004 had pressured one of the group’s founders and most militant members into becoming an informant.
In exchange for leniency in sentencing, he not only had to reveal all he knew about the ELF, but had to wear a hidden recorder and engage his former comrades in incriminating conversations. The first of many arrests took place in December 2005 and most of the arsonists are now serving prison terms ranging from 3-15 years. Four more are fugitives and one committed suicide in his cell.
With extensive and exclusive access, The House Of Fire follows the story of ELF founder Jake Ferguson, the eco-saboteur who was ultimately forced to cooperate with the FBI. It also includes the stories of Chelsea Gerlach and the late Bill “Avalon” Rodgers, the arsonists behind the torching of Vail Ski Area. Retired Special Agent John Ferreira, lead Agent in Operation Backfire, gives an extensive view inside the FBI’s nearly decade-long pursuit of the ELF.
