WPVI<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe fire quickly spread, damaging three neighboring units. Investigators say the blaze started inside McDermott\u2019s townhouse after he reportedly lit small fires throughout the day, telling a friend and witnesses that he was trying to kill spiders inside the residence.<\/p>\n
Police say McDermott, of East Moriches, New York, ignited a fire on the floor and then stacked a loveseat on top of it. Despite a friend\u2019s repeated efforts to put out the flames, McDermott continued to relight them, the man told authorities. <\/p>\n
Both men left the home at one point, only to return and find the structure fully engulfed in flames. <\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
Sean McDermott, 36, is accused of persistently reigniting fires in his home, defying his friend\u2019s repeated attempts to extinguish them (Pocono Mountain Regional Police)<\/p>\n
Volunteer firefighters battled the blaze for roughly eight hours amid freezing temperatures and icy conditions before finally bringing it under control, Wagner said.<\/p>\n
After the fire, McDermott fled the scene in a U\u2011Haul truck, police said. Nearly 100 miles later, New York Police Department officers responded Wednesday night to a hit\u2011and\u2011run collision involving that truck in midtown Manhattan.<\/p>\n
The man, later identified as McDermott, abandoned the truck and took off running, but was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
At the time of McDermott\u2019s arrest, NYPD\u2019s Emergency Services Unit and bomb squad were called to the scene, and officers found nitrous oxide canisters, better known as laughing gas, and a liquid accelerant in the truck, Wagner said. <\/p>\n
McDermott was charged in New York with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, unauthorized use of a vehicle, criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession or sale of noxious material. <\/p>\n
He has four prior arrests in New York City, including an assault charge from 2019, WPVI reports.<\/p>\n
After appearing before a judge in the city, McDermott is expected to be extradited to Pennsylvania to face additional charges, including arson<\/a>, for the Pennsylvania fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekdayYour briefing on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-125550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125550","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=125550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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