B.C.’s Education Minister says the province will look at mandating sprinklers in all of the province’s schools.

Rob Fleming was speaking on the NL Morning News, after Parkcrest Elementary in Kamloops burned down last Thursday.

“The Fire Investigators report will maybe inform us. I mean the building was built to the code of its time,” he said. “It does raise a question as to whether sprinklers would have been effective. You know, whether it would have changed the outcome of what we saw last week.”

School District 73 staff say 26 schools across the division have sprinkler systems, and work is ongoing to equip the other 19 as soon as possible. SD73 gets annual grant funding to upgrade schools, but that money has to be spread out across the division.

Secretary-Treasurer Kelvin Stretch also noted that after talking with the Kamloops Fire Department, it was apparent that sprinklers would not have saved Parkcrest from last week’s massive blaze.

“(Facilities) director (Art) MacDonald has prioritized a schedule on how schools will be updated for sprinkler systems, roofing, roll-down shutters, all of the basic envelope of a school,” Stretch added.

Fleming previously said he wants to see Parkcrest Elementary rebuilt quicker than a typical school would be.