Sean McDermott’s desperate escape from a self-set fire brings bomb squad to Manhattan and raises questions about how far fear can push someone past all rational limits
When Pest Control Becomes a Crime Scene
There are many stories about what it means to live in or near New York City. Sean McDermott’s is one of the stranger ones. The 36-year-old from East Moriches, New York, apparently feared spiders enough to set multiple fires inside his Pocono Pines townhome on Monday evening in what police say was an attempt at extermination by incineration. The result: four damaged homes, eight hours of work by volunteer firefighters in freezing temperatures, and a fugitive dash across two states in a rented truck loaded with laughing gas and liquid accelerant that ended on a busy Manhattan block. This is a story about fear, bad decisions, and the remarkable capacity of the legal system to catch up with both.
Pocono Pines: The First Scene
Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Chris Wagner told reporters that McDermott was inside the townhome with a friend when the fires began. The friend attempted repeatedly to extinguish the flames. McDermott kept re-lighting them. After both men left and returned to find the structure fully burning, volunteer firefighters from the local department responded and worked through the night. The structure sustained catastrophic damage. So did three adjacent townhomes occupied by neighbors who had nothing to do with McDermott’s spider problem. Under Pennsylvania law, arson charges are expected to follow. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that intentional fires cause hundreds of deaths and billions in property damage each year in the United States, with residential arson disproportionately harming neighbors and communities rather than the arsonist.
The Road to Manhattan
Rather than staying to face consequences in Pennsylvania, McDermott loaded into a rented U-Haul and drove east. He made it nearly 100 miles before his luck ran out at the intersection of East 23rd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan, where a hit-and-run collision Wednesday evening drew police attention. He fled on foot but was quickly apprehended. When officers investigated the abandoned truck, they found nitrous oxide — a controlled substance when possessed without authorization — and a liquid accelerant that had not been used but raised obvious alarm given the arson context in Pennsylvania. The NYPD Emergency Services Unit and bomb squad were deployed as a precaution. The Midtown block was briefly disrupted before investigators cleared the scene. The DEA’s drug scheduling database provides context on how nitrous oxide is regulated and the circumstances under which possession constitutes a criminal offense.
A Record and a Return
McDermott’s New York City arrest record includes four prior incidents, among them an assault charge from 2019. He faces charges in the city including resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, unauthorized use of a vehicle, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and unlawful possession of noxious materials. Following his New York court appearance, extradition proceedings to Pennsylvania are expected to begin. The arson charges there carry significantly more serious potential penalties than the New York charges. His neighbors in the Pocono Pines community are left to pursue property damage claims through insurance and the civil courts while their homes remain damaged in the dead of winter.
A Note on Spider Safety
For any reader tempted by the idea of using fire or aerosol flammables to address a spider infestation: please do not. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Pest Control guidance outlines evidence-based integrated pest management approaches that are both effective and legal. Most spider species common in Northeastern homes pose no health risk whatsoever and actually reduce mosquito and fly populations. Professional pest control services can address legitimate infestations safely, and the cost of that call would be, in the most conservative imaginable estimate, less than the cost of defending multiple felony and misdemeanor charges across two jurisdictions while simultaneously facing civil liability for four damaged townhomes.
