To some people, General Motors’ Hummer H2 represent more than a joyous extravagance — they’re big, safe and fun to drive.

To others, they are wasteful, testosterone-influenced toys that symbolize the American penchant for self-indulgence. But detractors usually don’t use fire to state their objections to the massive SUVs, which ironically get better gas mileage than most Ford Explorers.

Yet recently, in the middle of the night, 20 new Hummer H2's worth about $50,000 each were set on fire and destroyed at a car dealership in West Covina, Calif. as part of a wave of vandalism in which 50 other vehicles had been damaged at the same dealership and others around the suburbs east of Los Angeles.

The criminals that broke into the Clippinger dealership also left behind a calling card in addition to the damage they did. Besides the numerous vehicles spray-painted with the words “gross polluter” and “fat, lazy Americans,” a number of them had the letters “ELF” spray-painted on them, and the Earth Liberation Front, a militant environmentalist group, later proudly claimed responsibility for the damage.

The group, founded in England a decade ago and shunned by mainstream environmentalists, also claimed responsibility for a $50 million fire that destroyed a construction site for 1,500 apartments near the campus of the University of California at San Diego. A banner left at the site, signed ELF, said, “You build it — we burn it.”

However, the car dealership fires have commanded the most attention from the news media, law enforcement agencies and politicians, including one involved in the California recall election.

“What these people are doing isn’t activism — it is vandalism, and I strongly oppose it,” said Arianna Huffington, one of the candidates seeking to replace Gov. Gray Davis. “I have nothing against SUV owners; my problem is with Detroit. The automakers have the technology to make more fuel-efficient SUVs, and that is what consumers deserve.” Huffington is a former SUV owner who turned against the vehicles, claiming in part that by using so much gas they fostered terrorism in the Middle East.

At the FBI office in Los Angeles, the investigation is focused on the Earth Liberation Front. On its Web site, the group calls itself an “international underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment.” Since 1997, members in North America are believed to have caused more than $100 million in damage to real estate developers’ offices, houses and construction and logging sites. Prior to this attack, SUVs had been damaged in Seattle; Eugene, Ore.; Erie, Pa.; and Santa Cruz, Calif.