Port Orange

Photo for Headline Surfer / There is plenty of family fun with two free holiday movie showings sponsored by Port Orange Family Days at the amphitheather at the city center.

PORT ORANGE -- The Port Orange Family Days gets the holiday season in full swing Dec. 7 and 14 with "free" showings of the modern classics Home Alone and Beethoven's Christmas Adventure in the Kenneth W. Parker Amphitheater at Port Orange City Center, 1999 City Center Circle.

Ormond Beach resident new CFO for operation that includes branches in Port Orange, Kissimmee, Orlando and St. Augustine

Photo for Headline Surfer / Christine Thomas of Ormond Beach, shown here, has moved up to one of the top administrative posts in banking in the Sunshine State.

TAVARES -- When politicians ask if she's better off now than she was four years ago, Ormond Beach's Christine "Chris" Thomas can answer in the affirmative. But not because of anything government has done.

In these four short years, Thomas has worked her way up the business ladder to senior vice president controller at Reunion Bank of Florida and now she's the Tavares-based bank's chief financial officer.

Headline Surfer photo by Henry Frederick / Former Ponce Inlet Mayor Nancy Epps, shown here, is challenging first-term dist. 2 Volusia County Council member Joshua Wagner in the Nov. 6 general elections.  

PORT ORANGE -- Challenger Nancy Epps and incumbent dist. 2 Volusia County Council member Joshua Wagner have each committed to participating in a public debate sponsored by Headline Surfer leading up to the Nov. 6 general elections.

Epps, who finished second to Wagner in the Aug. 14 primary in a three-way contest to force the run-off said she's looking forward to debating the issues.

A kitchen fire in an apartment at the Groves Apartments over the weekend resulted in a man' death, but the fire was contained to his unit.

PORT ORANGE -- The man who perished in his residence at the Groves Apartments early Saturday morning in a fire contained to his unit has been identified as 66-year-old Richard Lynn Wagner.

A kitchen fire in an apartment turned deadly for a Port Orange man early Saturday.

PORT ORANGE -- A man died early this morning in an apartment fire contained to his residence in the Grove Apartments on Clyde Morris Boulevard, Port Orange police said.

Here is a synopsis of the 1:42 a.m. fatality as reported by police Lt. David Meyer: "The Port Orange Fire Department responded to a fire at the Groves Apartments 3780 Clyde Morris Blvd., Port Orange. Upon arrival the fire was found to be contained in a single upstairs apartment of Building # 14. The lone male resident of the apartment was transported to Halifax Hospital where he was pronounced deceased."

Meyer added, "The fire appears to have originated in the kitchen area of the apartment and does not appear to be suspicious in nature. The identification of the deceased is pending notification of the next of kin."

Courtesy photo /

PORT ORANGE -- A 57-year-old man who allegedly threatened adult family members with an axe before barricading himself in a bedroom with a knife, was taken into custody after Port Orange police stormed the house on Hawks Ridge Road, an agency spokesman said.

Police responded to a 9-1-1 call at 11:45 a.m. to the residence about a domestic situation involving a man armed with a knife. After a police negotiator was unable to get the man to surrender on his own and nearby residents were safely evacuated, the police department's emergency response team -- similar to SWAT-- stormed the house at 749 Hawks Ridge Road just after 4 p.m. Elbert Hale was taken into custody without further incident.