Former Auto Shop Employee Charged With Setting Two Fires In Lower and Upper Moreland
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Sean Galagan, of Lebanon Pa, used to work for JG Transmissions which is on Davis Road, in Upper Moreland Township. He was just arrested for allegedly setting the place on fire, as well as a shed in Lower Moreland. on December 29, 2023. that damaged that shed.
Police said that this all started earlier that day when Gahagan went to JG Transmission shop looking for work and was told that they had no work for him. He left the business. He showed up wearing a camouflage jacket and was driving a red Chevy Cobalt. The fire was set later that night.
Investigators secured security camera footage showing a red Chevy Cobalt parked at a nearby business and a male in a camouflage jacket running to JG Transmissions and running back from the shop six minutes before the fire was reported, they said. This fire was reported about 8:45 PM.
At about 8:30 PM, Gahagan’s vehicle was tripped up by a license plate reader near Huntingdon Pike in Lower Moreland. About the same time, investigators said, a shed was set on fire behind a house on Huntingdon Pike. Investigators did not say how the two were related except to say that inside the shed, they found fire-starting fluid and a can of “Gum Cutter,” which is a highly flammable product used to clean various parts of automotive engines. The fire investigators found that “Gum Cutter” is a product used by JG Transmissions.
On Jan. 1, 2024, Lebanon City Police arrested Gahagan for trespassing inside a church. At the time of his arrest, Gahagan was wearing a camouflage jacket that matched the subject’s jacket seen in surveillance video running from the fire at JG Transmissions. Gahagan is charged with first-degree Felony Arson, as well as six other felony counts of Arson, Risking Catastrophe, Burglary, Theft by Unlawful Taking, Criminal Mischief and Possessing an Instrument of Crime. He was arraigned on Jan. 19, 2024, by Magisterial District Judge Denise Ashe, who set bail at $500,000 cash, and Gahagan was remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.