Insurers offer $10K for information on the $3 million Battle Point blaze of June 24.

Fire investigators are looking to trade cash for clues.

With a three-week-old investigation yielding no suspects, officials at a Thursday press conference said they hope reward money will net them new information about a blaze that destroyed a $3 million home under construction on Battle Point Drive.

Signs offering a $10,000 reward will be posted at the site of the fire and in a few spots around town. The Arson Alarm Foundation and the Washington Insurance Council is posting the reward. Tipsters can call 780-4696 or 1-800-55-ARSON with information.

Beyond the reward, fire officials offered few specifics about their progress, for fear of compromising the investigation.

“We have no suspects at this time,” said Glenn Tyrrell, acting chief of the Bainbridge Island Fire Department, to a small assemblage of reporters outside the Madison Avenue fire station.

Tyrrell also said the June 24 fire started in the basement, though he wouldn’t disclose a specific location. Investigators do not know how many people were involved in the crime or what the motive was.

Lt. Bob Day of the Bainbridge Island Police Department wouldn’t speculate on what clues the fire’s point of origin might provide about the arsonist, but did say igniting it in the home’s walkwaout basement “was an interesting choice.”

Bainbridge police have taken the lead in the investigation, though the fire department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, an integral part of the early investigation, will both continue to be involved.

Day said police have interviewed about 18 people formally and 100 informally, 70 percent of them Bainbridge Islanders.

The 5,790-square-foot house was 60 percent complete and unoccupied when it was destroyed. Early suspicions about eco-terrorism – acts of destruction intended as political statements on environmental issues – were dismissed by investigators.

Controversy already surrounded the house prior to the fire, after an adjacent wetland was cleared by the home’s owner, Jeff Sneller, a real estate investor who moved here from California two years ago. That, along with speculative banter at local internet sites, fueled the rumors about eco-terrorism, which authorities quashed again on Thursday.

“There is (still) no reason to believe this was an eco-terrorism event,” Tyrrell said.

He was non-specific about whether fire accelerants were found, but said items found during the investigation had been sent to an ATF lab in California for analysis. Investigators originally said they would receive results within 60 days, but Day said it may take longer.

Arson cases often go unsolved. Only 16 percent of such cases end in arrest, according to the NW Insurance Council.

Still, Tyrrell is hopeful the culprit will be caught.

“We think someone will say or hear something,” Tyrrell said. “We’re interested in talking to anyone and everyone.”