Danville, Va. — A city councilman in Virginia was seriously injured Wednesday when a man stormed into his office at a local magazine, doused him in gasoline and set him on fire — an attack that authorities say was rooted in a personal dispute, not politics.

A man burst into an office in Danville, Va., where the councilman, J. Lee Vogler, was working, doused him with a flammable liquid and set him on fire, the authorities said.