The fire began in a utility room where the building's heating unit is housed and where a variety of items like paint and ceiling tiles were stored.

Investigators found no evidence that the fire was set or that someone broke into the building, which was closed Sunday.

"No arson, no foul play; this could have happened at any business, anywhere, (it) just by chance happens to be Planned Parenthood," said Jeff Tracz, an investigator with the Asheville-Buncombe Arson Task Force.

What caused the fire remains unclear, but witnesses heard an explosion in the building that could have occurred when an assortment of flammable materials exploded in the utility room, Tracz said.

The Army of God and other such groups have sought to terrorize Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers for decades. The AOG, for example, lists as
Heroes of the Faith, (kind of a terrorist hall of fame), people who have been convicted of, (among other things) bombings, arsons and assasinations of doctors.

Over the past three decades, the National Abortion Federation lists PDF) 7 murders, 17 attempted murders, 41 bombings, 175 arsons, and much, much more.

(MSNBC has a handy state by state clickable chart through 1997.)

For many years, much of society looked the other way as the religious right encouraged a massive crime wave against their fellow Americans. But especially since 9/11, antiabortion violence has come be be correctly seen as domestic terrorism, and it has been greatly reduced. But even today, fires deemed accidental, (as Don Spitz has shown,) are grim reminders of the stress that many clinic staff experience every day as the Army of God and their allies seek to keep the pressure on with not too subtle reminders that they are potential targets of domestic terrorism. Just today there was a bomb scare in Oakland, California. It turned out to be nothing. But it is a perfect example of the lingering effects of the long term campaign of domestic terror for abortion providers, for law enforcement and for many others. This is a campaign towhich most of the religious right turned a blind eye, and others quietly cheered or, as we see in the case of Donald Spitz, tried to blame on the victims of the terror themselves.

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Update [2008-4-2 12:27:5 by Frederick Clarkson]: The proprietors of God Tube have apparently now taken down all of Don Spitz's videos.]