Police believe arsonists attempted to burn down the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum near New Orleans’ Lee Circle early Wednesday morning as election results made it clear Donald Trump is the next president of the United States.

confederatefireTwo men hopped the gate in front of the museum shortly before 2 a.m., one with a tire in hand, and they set it ablaze on the front steps of the building before fleeing the scene, Richard Angelico, member of the museum’s board, told The Advocate.

Firefighters responded around 2:15 p.m. when the fire set off the heat sensors near the door, which was damaged by the incident. The granite steps also cracked as a result, a fire department spokesman said.

Firefighters extinguished the fire and launched an investigation.

“Angelico said the men wore hoodies and baseball caps and kept their heads down, but there were captured on security cameras mounted on the building,” the news site reports. “Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as the FBI and the New Orleans Police Department are all looking into the arson, Angelico said.”

“The heat was so intense,” Angelico told WWLTV. “I mean think how hot it had to be to shatter that granite step like that.”

Tommy Thompson, a museum visitor, said the vandalism is a tragedy.

“It’s just a terrible thing in my view,” he said. “I think it’s awful, especially given that it’s a shrine like it is. It just tears my heart, just tears my heart.”

Museum officials would not confirm whether they suspect the incident was related to Donald Trump’s historic election victory early Wednesday morning that sent many liberal protestors into a rage.

The fire, however, occurred just down the street from Lee Circle, where social justice warriors spray painted “Dismantle White Supremacy” on a monument to Confederate general Robert E. Lee. They also ignited at Trump effigy the same night, according to a picture posted to Twitter by The Gambit, a local news and arts site.

WWLTV reports a reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest for the museum fire, which Angelico said put a lot of valuable history at risk.

“This museum is a great resource for scholars and historians who come here, who are researching book, writing about the Civil War,” he said. “We have letters and diaries from families from all over Louisiana and the states that participated in the Civil War. They come here, they use that as a great resource. It’s a historic place. This is the oldest museum in the state of Louisiana, so we get people from all over the world who come here.”

“These things that we have inside this museum are irreplaceable,” Angelico said.

He also pointed out that those who vandalized the museum went beyond the antics of those protesting at Lee Circle.

“The monuments are all on public property, and this is a private museum,” he said.