kira phillips is on the scene just outside the white house. >> reporter: it happened just after 3:00 p.m. outside the white house on pennsylvania avenue where tourists often visit. a man in an electric wheelchair-type scooter deliberately setting his jacket on fire. within seconds, secret service agents are on him. inside the white house, reporters put on alert, ushered into the briefing room. outside, smoke rising from the scene. authorities extinguishing the fire, treating the man. four officers then carrying him away. tonight he's in the hospital being treated for non-life-threatening first-degree burns. sources say he was known to the secret service. they'd seen him around before. we're told he had no apparent political motive and was only out to harm himself. >> let's get to kyra phillips on the scene outside the white house tonight. thankfully no one was injured. no one in the white house was put in harm's way.