Who regulates fire extinguisher service companies in Texas?

Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office is the agency the research identified for this trade in Texas. Requirements and license classes change, so confirm the current rules with them directly.

How do I confirm the exact Texas requirements before my first job?

Contact Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office and confirm, in writing, the company license or registration, the technician certification, and any surety bond or insurance filing your scope needs. Requirements vary by jurisdiction — verify with your AHJ (authority having jurisdiction) before you take paid work. This page is a starting point, not legal advice.

Does hydrostatic testing add requirements in Texas?

Often, yes. Hydrostatic testing of extinguisher cylinders falls under federal DOT rules on top of your Texas service license, and some shops sub it out to a partner with the equipment rather than build a test bench on day one. Confirm what your license covers and what the testing adds.

What must a fire extinguisher service tag say in Texas?

Texas specifies the service tag in rule, down to its size and the colour it may not be: 28 TAC § 34.520 governs what a fire extinguisher service tag must be and must say. The full list of what the tag must carry is on this page. Rules move, so read the current text yourself and confirm with Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office before you print a run of tags.

State license required

Fire extinguisher service license requirements in Texas

Updated August 2026

Texas licenses portable fire-extinguisher service at the state level (Fire Extinguisher Certificate of Registration (ECR)), through Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office. Get licensed before you take a paid job — and verify the exact class and any technician credential with the agency.

What the research found

State: Texas (TX)
Regulating agency: Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office
License / class: Fire Extinguisher Certificate of Registration (ECR)
Notes from the source: A company in the business of portable extinguishers or fixed systems needs a Fire Extinguisher Certificate of Registration, and individuals hold their own license: FEL-B is the portable-extinguisher one, FEL-A adds fixed systems and FEL-K adds kitchen systems. You need the firm registration and licensed people.
Service tag: Tag specified in rule
Registry / agency link: https://www.tdi.texas.gov/fire/fmlichome.html
Adopted code: The Texas commissioner of insurance adopts NFPA 10-2018, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, by reference in the fire extinguisher rules. (28 TAC §34.507 (Adopted Standards))
https://tdi.texas.gov/rules/2023/documents/20237848.pdf

Verify with your AHJ. This is a research-derived starting point, not legal advice. Rules change, and local requirements stack on top of state ones, so the only answer that governs your work is the one you get from Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office and from your AHJ, the local authority having jurisdiction, before you take a paid job.

Which code edition applies in Texas

An NFPA standard is a private consensus document. It carries no legal force anywhere until a jurisdiction adopts it, and jurisdictions adopt different editions, years apart, with local amendments on top. So the useful question is never "what does NFPA 10 say". It is "which edition has my authority adopted, and what did they change".

For Texas the research found this adoption record: The Texas commissioner of insurance adopts NFPA 10-2018, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, by reference in the fire extinguisher rules. (28 TAC §34.507 (Adopted Standards)) The record is linked in the at-a-glance table above and in the sources below.

Read that as the floor, not the ceiling. Your local fire marshal may enforce a later edition, an amended one, or a local ordinance the state record does not mention, and an adoption record can be superseded between one job and the next. Confirm the edition in force with Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office and with the authority having jurisdiction where the work is.

What a service tag must carry in Texas

Texas specifies the service tag in rule, down to its size and the colour it may not be: 28 TAC § 34.520 governs what a fire extinguisher service tag must be and must say.

Read the current rule text yourself before a print run. Tag rules move, printers hold old plates, and a box of tags is an expensive thing to get wrong. Confirm with Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office.

The per-state picture, and why the colour folklore is wrong, is laid out in the state-by-state tag requirements guide and what a fire extinguisher tag colour actually means.

The cadence underneath all of it

Whether or not Texas licenses this trade, the intervals your customers owe are set somewhere else, and one layer of them is federal. Under OSHA's portable fire extinguisher regulation, an employer subject to OSHA has to have extinguishers visually inspected monthly and put through an annual maintenance check, wherever the building is. The state's adopted edition of NFPA 10 and the local fire marshal stack on top of that floor.

The interval that surprises people is the pressure test, because it is not one number: it depends on the agent and the shell, and a unit on the wrong assumption reads as current for years when it is not. The full picture, with the section of the federal regulation each interval comes from, is in the federal extinguisher intervals guide, and the by-type test schedule is in hydrostatic test intervals by extinguisher type. To put dates against a specific unit, the free cadence lookup takes a manufacture date and an equipment type and returns the next dates due. It is a planning aid, never a verdict on a building.

Sources

Every statement above traces to one of these. Open them and read the current text yourself, because the agency page is the record and this page is only a pointer to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a license to service fire extinguishers in Texas?: Texas licenses portable fire-extinguisher service at the state level (Fire Extinguisher Certificate of Registration (ECR)), through Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office. Get licensed before you take a paid job — and verify the exact class and any technician credential with the agency.
Who regulates fire extinguisher service companies in Texas?: Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office is the agency the research identified for this trade in Texas. Requirements and license classes change, so confirm the current rules with them directly.
How do I confirm the exact Texas requirements before my first job?: Contact Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office and confirm, in writing, the company license or registration, the technician certification, and any surety bond or insurance filing your scope needs. Requirements vary by jurisdiction — verify with your AHJ (authority having jurisdiction) before you take paid work. This page is a starting point, not legal advice.
Does hydrostatic testing add requirements in Texas?: Often, yes. Hydrostatic testing of extinguisher cylinders falls under federal DOT rules on top of your Texas service license, and some shops sub it out to a partner with the equipment rather than build a test bench on day one. Confirm what your license covers and what the testing adds.
What must a fire extinguisher service tag say in Texas?: Texas specifies the service tag in rule, down to its size and the colour it may not be: 28 TAC § 34.520 governs what a fire extinguisher service tag must be and must say. The full list of what the tag must carry is on this page. Rules move, so read the current text yourself and confirm with Texas Dept. of Insurance — State Fire Marshal's Office before you print a run of tags.

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