Claire Bendiner had just stepped out of their Brooklyn bar on Sunday night when they suddenly heard chilling screams coming from employees inside the building. They turned around and saw the nightclub engulfed in flames.

“There was a second where I was in total disbelief,” said Bendiner, who uses they/them pronouns. “I was like, ‘This isn’t possibly what I’m actually seeing.’ ”

Bendiner, a co-owner of the bar Rash, then sprang into action, calling 911 and making sure people who lived in the apartments upstairs evacuated the building. The fire department arrived quickly, and two of the three people who were inside were sent to the hospital with cuts and burns, Bendiner said. One was released on Wednesday, they added.

Security camera footage released by the New York City Police Department on Wednesday shows a man wearing a backpack and a hoodie smoking a cigarette inside the bar about 9:20 p.m. as he dumped a canister of gas along the ramp that goes down the dance floor. He then tossed what appeared to be his cigarette, leaned down and lit the puddle of flammable liquid on fire, the video shows.

Bendiner, 32, doesn’t know why Rash was targeted. The man — whom police describe as 5 feet 9 inches tall, 180 pounds, and between 20 and 30 years old — could have been a disgruntled customer or a “total lunatic,” Bendiner said. But they suspect Rash might have been chosen because it’s known as a space for the LGBTQ community.