{"id":122607,"date":"2026-02-25T01:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122607\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:02:08","slug":"pennsylvania-man-set-fires-to-kill-spiders-igniting-blaze-that-damaged-homes-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122607\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania man set fires to kill spiders, igniting blaze that damaged homes: Police"},"content":{"rendered":"

POCONO PINES, Pa. (WPVI) — Pocono Mountain Regional Police are searching for a man accused of setting multiple fires inside his townhome in an effort to kill spiders, sparking a blaze that spread to several neighboring units.<\/p>\n

Officers responded around 6 p.m. Monday to a fire on the 600 block of Uncus Lane. The flames damaged the suspect’s home and three connected townhomes, police said.<\/p>\n

According to investigators, a witness reported seeing the resident, identified as Sean McDermott, repeatedly lighting small fires inside his home throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\"Sean<\/a><\/p>\n

McDermott allegedly told the witness he was trying to kill spiders.<\/p>\n

Police say McDermott had a smoldering fire burning on the floor and then placed a loveseat on top of it. The witness told officers he attempted several times to extinguish the fires, but McDermott continued to relight them.<\/p>\n

Both men reportedly left the area, and when they returned, the townhome was fully engulfed.<\/p>\n

McDermott fled the scene in a U-Haul truck and is now wanted on charges including arson, aggravated arson and other related offenses, police said.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to contact Pocono Mountain Regional Police.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POCONO PINES, Pa. (WPVI) — Pocono Mountain Regional Police are searching for a man accused of setting multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57661,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-122607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-57661","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}