- New photos have been released showing the inside of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Harrisburg home after it was set on fire in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, April 13, in a suspected arson attack
- Images showed melted furniture and burned tables, with the floors and walls of the residence covered in soot
- Authorities have determined the fire to be an “act of arson” and are investigating, with Pennsylvania State Police confirming that a Harrisburg man, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, had been arrested and charged in connection with the incident
New photos have been released showing the devastation inside Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Harrisburg home after it was set on fire in a suspected arson attack.
On Sunday, April 13, at approximately 2 a.m. local time, “members of the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire responded to the Governor’s Residence, located on North Front Street, Harrisburg City, Dauphin County, for the report of a fire,” Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) said in a news release.
Shapiro, 51, was in the home with his family when he “woke up to bangs on the door” from the PSP not long after, he wrote in a statement shared on X.
Images of the aftermath have now been released, with some showing melted furniture, burned walls and the house covered in black soot.
Other photos showed a ruined couch, destroyed plates and tables and chairs and a light switch ripped out of the wall. There was also an image of a “Passover Crafts” sign on a table after the fire broke out on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Hours before the blaze, Shapiro had shared a look at his family’s Seder table on social media.
There were also a couple of photos showing a dining area in the property that miraculously didn’t appear to have been affected by the fire.
According to the Associated Press, it was the south wing of the governor’s residence that had been badly damaged.
Authorities have determined the fire to be an “act of arson” and are investigating. Pennsylvania State Police announced later on Sunday that a Harrisburg man, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, had been arrested and charged in connection with the incident.
Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police said the suspect “clearly had a plan” and was “very methodical in his approach,” per CNN. Bivens added that the suspect was inside the governor’s residence for less than a minute and “actively evaded” troopers who were searching for him.
“While the fire was successfully extinguished, it caused a significant amount of damage to a portion of the residence,” the PSP said in a statement on Sunday.
“The Governor and his family were present in a different part of the residence. They were evacuated safely and were not injured,” police added, as Shapiro wrote on X, “Thank God no one was injured.”
“This type of violence is not okay. This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society,” Shapiro then said at a news conference on Sunday in a clip shared on X, confirming they didn’t yet know the suspect’s specific motive for the attack.
Shapiro and his wife, Lori Shapiro, married in 1997 and share four children: Sophia, Jonah, Max and Reuben. It is unclear how many of their children were in the home during the fire.
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Shapiro, a Democrat, was sworn in as the 48th governor of Pennsylvania in January 2023. He previously served as attorney general from 2017 to 2023, chair of the board of commissioners in Montgomery County from 2011 to 2017 and state representative from 2005 to 2011, per the state’s website.
PEOPLE reached out to the PSP for additional information on Sunday, April 13.
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