Police are searching for a suspect in what appears to have been an attempted arson at the Burlington, Vermont office of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
At around 10:45 a.m. on Friday, a man entered Sanders’ office before spraying an “apparent accelerant” on an entrance door, Burlington police said in a statement. After the man lit the flammable substance, “a significant fire engulfed the door and part of the vestibule, impeding the egress of staff members who were working in the office and endangering their lives,” police said.
Vermont State Police determined Friday that the fire was intentionally set but have yet to confirm a motive.
When local firefighters arrived at the office, they found “a fire in the vestibule between the elevator and the entrance door to [Sanders’] office,” according to a department press release. Burlington police said the building’s sprinkler system kicked in and “engaged and largely extinguished the fire.”
The suspect fled the office and was still at large on Saturday. In an effort to identify him, local police released a photo from a surveillance camera showing him carrying a light-colored bag and wearing an orange beanie, dark jacket, and pants.
Sanders wasn’t in the office Friday morning, and no injuries were reported. The Burlington fire department said that the third floor of the building, which houses Sanders’ only congressional office in his home state, sustained “significant water damage” when sprinklers kicked in to extinguish the fire. The door to the office was also damaged.
“We are grateful to the Burlington Fire and Police Departments who responded immediately today to a fire incident that took place in our office building,” Sanders’ state director Kathryn Van Haste said in a statement. “We are relieved that no one on our staff and, to our understanding, no one in the building was harmed.”
She added that the United States Capitol Police and the Senate sergeant-at-arms are working with local authorities to investigate the incident and determine what happened.