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According to police in Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders’ office in Burlington was the scene of a fire now under investigation as arson, resulting in the Capitol Police taking additional measures to ensure his safety.

The Burlington Police Department, alongside the Burlington Fire Department, was quick to respond to the incident on Friday morning. In a statement, officials said, “An unknown male subject entered the vestibule of the Office of United States Senator Bernard Sanders. The male sprayed an apparent accelerant on the entrance door to Senator Sanders’s offices. He then lit the accelerant and fled. 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.”

Firefighters arrived to find the building’s fire safety systems fully activated and a fire raging in the critical area between the building’s entrance and the elevator. The Burlington Fire Department confirmed the fire’s malicious origins, noting that it was “incendiary in nature,” as determined by the Fire Marshal’s office. Meanwhile, the perpetrator remains at large, with law enforcement actively investigating.

Kathryn Van Haste, Sanders’ state director, said, “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. We are relieved that no one on our staff and, to our understanding, no one in the building was harmed.”

Senator Sanders, who was spotted this weekend in Vermont, had a protection detail assigned to him by the United States Capitol Police following the incident. This move is uncommon but done when credible threats are made against sitting US lawmakers.