Woman is fired up about firefighting mural

CHAPEL HILL -- A Chapel Hill firefighter gives a thumbs up and a water-bottle toast as his co-worker casually sprays a raging trailer fire with a tiny garden hose.

Ramses, the UNC mascot, smirks in the foreground. A Duke Blue Devils banner hangs from the burning mobile home.

Jeanne Brown doesn't think the mural in the Firehouse Subs franchise on Franklin Street is very funny.

"To celebrate the burning down of a rival's campus is taking the fun too far," said Brown of Chapel Hill. She wrote to the company and town officials.

Company officials say they understand Brown's concern, but they don't intend to remove the Chapel Hill painting. A mural at the new Firehouse Subs on Erwin Road near Duke's campus in Durham shows Ramses' tail on fire.

Firehouse Subs was founded by two firefighters and raises money to support community fire departments.

"The last thing we want to do is offend anybody," said company representative Tim Goss. "It's just a college rivalry, and we're trying to have a little fun with it."

Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones defended the Franklin Street mural.

"I believe most people in town recognize it as an artist's joke of sarcastic nature and do not believe it to be disrespectful," Jones wrote to Brown. "We are not offended by it."

But Brown plans to boycott the Franklin Street store until the mural is removed.