An arsonist set two fires in Montco, including at a property he previously targeted, police say

A Lebanon County man, upset that he had to pay thousands of dollars in restitution after pleading guilty to setting fire to a house in 2004, intentionally started another fire at the same property in Lower Moreland almost exactly 20 years later, prosecutors said Thursday.

Sean Gahagan, 56, has again been charged with arson, for the late-December blaze, and has also been accused of starting another fire the same night at a Willow Grove mechanic shop where he previously worked. Prosecutors say Gahagan was frustrated that the shop, JG Transmissions, didn’t have enough money inside when he broke in to rob it.

Gahagan has also been charged with risking catastrophe, criminal mischief, burglary, and related crimes in connection with the two fires, both set Dec. 29, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. He remained in custody Thursday, on $500,000 bail. There was no indication that he had a lawyer.

Police in Lower Moreland were called to a home on Huntingdon Pike about 8:30 p.m. on the night of the fires, the affidavit said. Inside a shed at the rear of the property, an officer saw that two fires had been lit using wood piled inside the shed, one on the floor, and another near the building’s roof. The officer was able to control some of the fire using a fire extinguisher, and a local fire company was able to put it out completely.

One of the shed’s windows had been broken, and a can of engine starter fluid and a solvent used to clean carburetors and other engine parts had been left inside the shed, according to the affidavit. The shed’s owner said neither belonged to him.

That owner, Joe Traurig, said Thursday that Gahagan had lived next door to him in 2004, when he was charged with setting fire to Traurig’s home.

In that earlier case, Gahagan broke down a side door in Traurig’s home while he was away and set multiple fires around the 18th-century building, according to Traurig. Traurig arrived home in time to douse most of the blaze with a fire extinguisher, but after the fire, he said, the smoke damage was so severe that he couldn’t live in the house.

Gahagan pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to 11 months to 1 year and 11 months in jail, court records show. He violated his probation in that case twice, and ended up serving nearly 18 months behind bars.

Minutes after the fire in Traurig’s shed, police in nearby Upper Moreland responded to a report of a fire at JG Transmissions, about four miles away. By the time officers arrived, the business was fully engulfed. Firefighters helped control the blaze, but the building was largely destroyed.

Surveillance footage from the area around both locations revealed a man in a red Chevrolet Cobalt parking nearby right before the fires were reported. The footage from JG Transmissions showed the man wearing a distinctive camouflage jacket and matching pants.

The owner of JG Transmissions told detectives that Gahagan, a former employee, had visited the shop earlier that day, asking for work to be done on a red Chevrolet Cobalt, the affidavit said.

Investigators tracked Gahagan down to Lebanon, where he was brought in for questioning. At the time, he was wearing clothing matching the outfit seen in the surveillance footage.

Gahagan admitted to setting both fires, telling police he had broken into JG Transmissions by throwing a cinder block through a window, the affidavit said. After discovering that a cash box inside contained only change, he started a fire using brake cleaner as an accelerant.

The Lower Moreland fire was set, he said, because Gahagan “felt cheated” because he had to pay Traurig nearly $80,000 in restitution after admitting guilt in the 2004 arson.