The Florida Masochist: The Knucklehead of the Day award Part Three

Our third winner today is Deborah Lynn Hammons of Winter Springs. She gets the award for the following.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Hundreds of angry hotel guests who were roused from their beds in the 25-story Ocean Walk Resort by a late-night fire alarm roundly applauded when police took a bikini-clad blonde from the hotel in handcuffs early Sunday morning.

It was the second night in a row that false alarms terrified guests in the two towers of the oceanfront hotel and forced them to clamber down stairs in scenes that put some in mind of a disaster movie or the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Sunday, elderly people on some of the top six floors of the north tower were screaming for help after the alarm sounded, said Will Cagle, 17, who was vacationing with his twin brother, mother and stepather from Sherveport, La.

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A spokesman for the Daytona Beach Fire Department, Lt. John King, said "at least 11 portable dry chemical fire extinguishers were activated sending clouds (of) smoke-like white powder into the hallways of the 19th through 25th floor."

The twin-tower, 710-room timeshare hotel at 300 S. Atlantic Ave. was near capacity over the weekend with families, many with children just starting summer vacation from schools.

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About 1 a.m., before guests were permitted to return to their rooms, police and firemen walked a blond woman wearing a blue bikini with her hands handcuffed behind her to a waiting patrol car, Livingston said. The 300 or so disgruntled hotel guests applauded the arrest, he said.

Police arrested Deborah Lynn Hammons, 31, of Winter Springs and charged her with preventing or obstructing extinguishment of fire. That is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in jail.