ENID — Enid High School soon will have something long overdue: a building-wide fire sprinkler system.

Adding a sprinkler system to the existing building won’t be cheap. In fact, the district’s best guess is it could cost as much as $500,000, Enid Public Schools Superintendent Shawn Hime said.

But as fire sprinkler installation expert Terry Button, who works for Dallas-based Texas Sprinkler, points out, avoiding one fatality in a fire would be worth a sprinkler system’s weight in gold.

“As an industry, in our work, everybody’s trying to save lives,” Button said.

It’s more expensive to install a sprinkler system in an existing building than in a new one, Button said. That’s because the work is more complex when installers must go through and around existing walls, piping, ceilings and other fixtures.

It’s more cost-effective to install a sprinkler system as a structure is being built. A new school with a sprinkler system also is less expensive to build in the first place because the sprinkler system prevents need for pricey fire-resistant components, Button said.

Enid assistant fire marshal Todd Hays said schools are considered “low-hazard occupancies,” but they have a high life hazard in a fire.

A Dec. 1, 1958, fire at Our Lady of the Angels grade school in Chicago remains one of the worst school fires in U.S. history, Hays said. Part of the reason is the time of day the fire broke out — classes were in session. From the 65 children taken directly to the morgue after the fire, to William Edington Jr., 13, who died from his injuries on Aug. 9, 1959, the fire claimed the lives of 92 students and three nuns.

Although Our Lady of the Angels was in compliance with fire standards for schools at the time, the tragedy resulted in many changes to fire codes for schools, Hays said.

He said codes now specify how the inside of a school can be furnished if there is no sprinkler system, what kind of paints they can use, how much surface area can be covered with combustible materials and the like.

Hays compares the design of Enid High School with that of Our Lady of the Angels. The open stairwells created a ready path for fire, smoke and poisonous gas to quickly spread and overtake anyone in the building.

“The fire started in the basement and it had an open stairwell,” Hays said of the Our Lady of the Angels fire. “The smoke and heat traveled up the stairwell. They didn’t have second exits in the classrooms. By the time they knew there was a fire in there, there was smoke filling the second floor.”

The majority of the deaths were from smoke inhalation, Hays said.

“It happened so quickly those kids didn’t have a chance to get out,” he said.

Hays said the building likely would remain intact in case of a fire — but little else would.

“If we were to have a fire at Enid High School right now, the building itself would not burn,” he said. “It’s fireproof construction. It’s concrete. It would be the contents that burn.”

In other words, paint on the walls, curtains, desks, paper and the like would be consumed, but the walls themselves would remain.

Hays said he is glad to see Enid Public Schools install a fire sprinkler system throughout the building as part of the renovation process.

He said the two new schools being built — Garfield and Prairie View — are designed with sprinkler and alarm systems.

Hays explained it’s a common misconception that a building’s entire sprinkler system activates during a fire. Sprinkler heads trigger individually instead: A fire in one room triggers the sprinkler system in that room only, and water immediately flows to that room and begins putting out the fire.

If the fire spreads to another room, those sprinkler heads are activated.

“Usually it is five heads or less that put out a fire,” Button said.

When Enid High School’s food court was added 2006, a fire sprinkler system was installed in that area only.

Texas Sprinkler was contracted to design the fire sprinkler system at Waller Middle School, being installed now. The contractor who will install the sprinkler system for EHS will be selected soon. Texas Sprinkler did not bid on the EHS job.

“The contractor is expected to be decided next week by the at-risk manager for the project, Henson Construction,” said Robert Sands, program manager for Carter and Associates. Carter is the management firm working with Enid Public Schools on the school renovation project.