Last year, cooking fires were the number one cause of house fires in Minnesota.  The losses topped six million dollars but a $50 appliance could have made that - much less.

This week, members of the Coon Rapids Fire Department installed stovetop fire stoppers at HOPE Place, a transitional housing facility in the city that houses up to a dozen young people experiencing homelessness.  Stovetop fire stoppers are a simple, automatic fire suppression system that can limit the damage caused by a grease fire.

"For each burner there is a cartridge so if there’s a fire it sets off the wick and a door comes down and then once it gets hot enough the chemical is released and it’s deflected onto this burner and then there’s another back here for this burner that can extinguish a fire on that burner," says firefighter Robert Erickson.

Two units were installed in each of the 12 apartments.  Money for the project came from the Snowflake Days Chili Challenge which raised almost $1,500 for Hope 4 Youth.