In the early morning hours after the first night of Passover, Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, and his family were able to evacuate the Governor’s Residence without injury during a fire, according to PA State Police.
Around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, members of the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire responded to a report of a fire at the North Front Street mansion in Harrisburg, per the State Police’s press release. The fire was “successfully extinguished,” though it caused a “significant amount of damage to a portion of the residence.”
The State Police concluded the first paragraph of the release with the following line: “While the investigation is ongoing, the State Police is prepared to say at this time that this was an act of arson.”
They now have a suspect in custody, too: Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg. He is being charged with attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated assault and arson, according to authorities speaking at a late afternoon press conference Sunday outside the Governor’s Residence.
Shapiro and his family had been celebrating Passover in the residence the night before. The governor posted a picture of the set Seder table on X.
On Sunday morning, he again posted on X, though the statement was very different: “Last night at about 2AM, my family and I woke up to bangs on the door from the Pennsylvania State Police after an arsonist set fire to the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg,” Shapiro said.
“Thank God no one was injured and the fire was extinguished,” he continued. “Every day, we stand with the law enforcement and first responders who run towards danger to protect our communities. Last night, they did so for our family – and Lori and I are eternally grateful to them for keeping us safe.”
At the Sunday afternoon news conference, authorities explained that Balmer hopped a security fence, entered the residence and used a homemade incendiary device to set fire to the same room in which Shapiro and his family had celebrated the holiday the night before, according to reports from the Associated Press and Spotlight PA. The AP report also stated that Balmer was “inside the residence for about a minute” and was “later arrested in the area.”
In the aftermath of the fire, shattered glass littered the charred and blackened room, per the AP report.
The governor spoke at the press conference and later posted a version of what he said to X: “Last night at the Governor’s Residence, we experienced an attack not just on our family, but on the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This kind of violence has become far too common in our society, and it has to stop,” he said.
