A 35-year-old woman who was smoking meth in her room at Intown Suites on South Milledge Avenue set off a fire alarm last Tuesday morning when she removed the pressure valve from a sprinkler head in her room because she thought there was a camera concealed in there, Athens-Clarke County police said.
That and adjoining rooms suffered water damage from the several hundred gallons of water that flowed from the sprinkler head by the time Athens-Clarke County firefighters arrived to stop the flow of water, according to police.
The police officer was on routine patrol at about 8 a.m. last Tuesday when he heard the fire alarm go off and proceeded to investigate, at which time Jennifer Davidson Meachum approached and told the officer what she did to set off the alarm, police said.
Meachum told the officer about her drug use at the extended stay hotel, and whatever drugs that were in her room were destroyed in the flood, according to police. The officer noted in the report he was able to look into the flooded room and see smoking pipes which Meachum admitted using to ingest methamphetamine.
The officer arrested Meachum for possession of drug paraphernalia and second-degree criminal damage, and was driving the woman to jail when she complained of having difficulty breathing. She was transferred to a National EMS ambulance and taken to St. Mary’s Hospital for treatment.