A man who is accused of causing a fire at his Pocono Pines townhouse is now also charged in New York, where he was arrested after police say he abandoned a rental truck full of nitrous oxide.

According to reports, Sean McDermott, 36, of Pocono Pines was arrested on several charges, including obstruction of governmental administration, criminal possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of noxious material, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest.

Pennsylvania court records list McDermott as having a Pocono Pines address. Reports also describe McDermott as being from Long Island, New York.

CBS News New York reported that the New York City Police Department received an alert that a U-Haul driven by McDermott might be heading toward New York City. On the night of Feb. 25, the U-Haul truck, which police said contained 52 canisters of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, was found near 28th Street and Madison Avenue. The NYPD bomb squad cleared the truck for explosives.

After the NYPD put out a citywide alert for McDermott, he was located at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, near Times Square. Police sources told CBS News New York that McDermott resisted arrest and was in possession of a crack pipe.

Pennsylvania arson charges

According to the criminal complaint for McDermott’s arson case, officers with Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department were dispatched to a townhouse on Uncas Lane in Tobyhanna Township on reports of flames and smoke on Feb. 23.

Upon their arrival, a man told police that McDermott hired him to assist in cleaning his house. When the man arrived at 3 p.m., the residence had a lot of smoke and he saw a pile of burning clothes and furniture in front of the fireplace. He said McDermott used a lighter, matches, cardboard, lighter fluid and a love seat to increase the fire, and that McDermott had told him that they needed to kill spiders.

The hired man said he threw a five-gallon can of gas out the rear door, and McDermott kept lighting fires in the residence while he was putting them out with a garden watering can. He also said he saw McDermott use what he believed was methamphetamine.

Eventually, the man said he grew tired of McDermott’s “erratic” behavior and wanted to leave, so he called a friend to bring him home. McDermott took an Uber ride to the bank to withdraw $500 to pay the man.

McDermott and the man reunited at the property at 5:55 p.m., where McDermott told him that the house was on fire and left the area in a U-Haul truck.

The man spotted two black bags lying in the snow, and two cans of bug spray and a container of lighter fluid in one of them.

The complaint’s affiant, PMRPD Detective Cpl. Kyle Vannote, wrote that when he got to the scene, the townhouse and three connecting homes appeared to be a total loss. The Tobyhanna Township, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Tunkhannock and East Penn Township fire departments extinguished the fire.

Among other counts, McDermott faces nine first and second-degree felony charges for arson. He is also charged with causing catastrophe, a first-degree felony, and several other felonies and misdemeanors.

Max Augugliaro is the public safety and government watchdog reporter at the Pocono Record. Reach him at MAugugliaro@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Man suspected of arson in Monroe County arrested days later in NYC