by erin wiltgen

chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035

CHAPEL HILL -- In a mass makeover of college cooking, the UNC Chapel Hill fire marshal plans to use $221,018 in federal grant money to upgrade stoves in the university dorms.

Billy Mitchell, fire marshal at UNC, plans to fulfill that goal by putting the grant money towards safer stove elements in the campus dorms.

"We've had a few instances where a safer element would've come in handy," he said. "No fires, but we've had close calls."

Mitchell said he and some colleagues saw the elements at a convention a few years ago.

"We thought this would be a good thing to do," Mitchell said. "It's kinda hard to expect a student to come in here and know how to cook when they don't cook at home."

When officials at the UNC Department of Environment, Health and Safety applied for the grant, they had the stove elements in mind. Mitchell said they were happy to get the amount they did.

"It helps us do stuff that we ordinarily couldn't do because we don't have the money," he said. "We have a lot of stoves on campus. I think it'll make our dorms a much safer atmosphere for cooking."

The Fire Prevention and Safety Grant that UNC received is one of the three types of Assistance to Firefighters Grants. They are given by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. North Carolina fire departments and organizations will receive $1,296,689 of the approximately $500 million distributed nationwide over the fiscal year.

This week's round of grants total $13,074,036 nationally and include the grant to UNC, another prevention and safety grant to N.C. State University and an Assistance to Firefighters grant to the city of Eden. The third type of grant AFG offers is the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response. The prevention and safety grant supports projects that enhance public and fire safety.

"The idea is to make the grassroots level communities safer in several different ways, and this is one of them," said Kurt Pickering, spokesman for FEMA Region IV based in Atlanta. "The Fire Prevention and Safety grants are to make it less likely to have death and injury in fire."