{"id":125901,"date":"2026-02-28T08:40:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/125901\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T08:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T08:40:39","slug":"man-wanted-for-setting-fires-inside-pocono-pines-home-to-kill-spiders-arrested-in-nyc-following-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/125901\/","title":{"rendered":"Man wanted for setting fires inside Pocono Pines home to kill spiders arrested in NYC following hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK CITY (WPVI) — A man wanted for allegedly setting his Pennsylvania home on fire in an attempt to kill spiders, was arrested in New York City after getting into a hit-and-run crash and abandoning his U-Haul truck.<\/p>\n

The suspect was identified as 36-year-old Sean McDermott of East Moriches, New York.<\/p>\n

Authorities say McDermott had started a fire in his townhome in Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania<\/a> on Monday evening, in what he said was an attempt to kill spiders within the residence.<\/p>\n

Police say the flames damaged McDermott’s home and three connected townhomes.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Pa. man set fires to kill spiders, igniting blaze that damaged homes: Police<\/a><\/p>\n

Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Chris Wagner told WABC-TV that hours earlier, McDermott was in the home with a friend who tried to stop the 36-year-old suspect.<\/p>\n

The friend told police “he kept putting the fires out and McDermott kept lighting them.”<\/p>\n

The friend stated both he and McDermott left the home and went to different locations. They both arrived back to find the townhome engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n

Volunteer firefighters spent eight hours battling the blaze.<\/p>\n

Neighbors could not believe the damage. Inside the home are huge icicles, and a large hole in the ceiling over the fireplace where a holiday stocking still hangs.<\/p>\n

McDermott then fled the scene in a U-Haul truck.<\/p>\n

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

He made it nearly 100 miles east to New York City, where police say he was involved in a hit-and-run at East 23rd Street and Madison Avenue around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

McDermott took off running, but was taken into custody.<\/p>\n

NYPD officials say their Emergency Services Unit and the bomb squad both responded to the scene.<\/p>\n

Inside the truck, they say McDermott was in possession of nitrous oxide, AKA laughing gas, and some kind of liquid accelerant at the time of his arrest.<\/p>\n

He was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, unauthorized use of a vehicle, criminal criminal possession of a controlled substance, and unlawfully possessing or selling noxious materials.<\/p>\n

McDermott has four prior arrests in New York City, including one for assault in 2019.<\/p>\n

After facing a judge in the city, he will be extradited to Pennsylvania to face charges, including arson.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK CITY (WPVI) — A man wanted for allegedly setting his Pennsylvania home on fire in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[58905,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-125901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-58905","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\/125901","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=125901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}