Texas extinguisher licensure runs through the State Fire Marshal’s Office of the Texas Department of Insurance: individual licenses — FEL-B for portables, FEL-K for kitchen cooking systems, FEL-A for fixed systems — each gated by closed-book PSI tests of 50 questions, with the TFM01 statutes and rules test required of every class and a passing standard for each test. TDI accepts ICC/NAFED certifications in place of the technical tests only. This guide walks the classes, each test’s references and subjects, the substitution rules, the fees and restrictions, and a study plan. PassProfessor’s practice program is in the works.
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Texas extinguisher licensure is a system, and candidates who treat it as a single exam study it wrong. The license you hold determines the work you may do; the class you seek determines the tests you sit; the tests divide into a statutes layer that no credential replaces and technical layers that map to NFPA standards; and the whole structure is paced by standing requirements — six months in a lower credential before the higher classes — and by a retake regime that rations attempts. Preparation that ignores the system and drills standards alone leaves the statutes test underprepared and the scheduling underplanned, which is how otherwise capable technicians stall a class for a season. This guide is organized against that failure mode: the licensing architecture first, then each class with its permitted work and its tests, then each test in depth — references, published subjects, and a preparation method — then the substitution rules stated exactly, scoring and restrictions, application mechanics and fees, and a study plan sequenced for the class stack. Every factual statement comes from TDI’s published fire extinguisher licensing page, recorded in this guide’s internal sources section.
Which licenses are these?
This guide covers the individual fire extinguisher licenses issued by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) through the State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO): the Type B Portable Fire Extinguisher License (FEL-B), the Type K Kitchen Cooking Systems License (FEL-K), the Type A Fixed System License (FEL-A), the Type PL Planning License (EPL), and the Apprentice Permit (EAP). Company registrations — the Extinguisher Certificate of Registration (ECR), branch office registration, and the Type C Hydrostatic Testing Registration — are covered here only as context, because individuals are licensed inside registered companies and the structure cannot be understood without them; they are not examination subjects of this program. These are state licenses, not certifications. The ICC/NAFED certifications that appear in the substitution section are a separate, national credential system that TDI chooses to credit against its technical tests; holding one is never the same thing as holding a Texas license, and this guide keeps the two apart throughout.
The licensing structure at a glance
| Fact of record | Detail |
|---|---|
| Authority | Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) — State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) |
| Instruments | Licenses issued to individuals; registrations issued to companies (ECR, branch office, Type C hydrostatic) |
| Gateway rule | No individual license issues until the applicant is employed by a registered company; fingerprint background check required unless already on file with SFMO |
| Classes | FEL-B (portables) · FEL-K (cooking systems) · FEL-A (fixed systems) · EPL (planning) · EAP (apprentice permit) |
| Tests | TFM01 Statutes and Rules · TFM02 Type B · TFM03 Type K · TFM04 Type A — through PSI; all closed book, 50 questions each |
| Passing | Seventy percent or better on each required test, as TDI publishes the standard |
| Retake discipline | Each test type once a week at most; no more than three times in 12 months |
| Progression | FEL-K and FEL-A each require six months holding FEL-B or an Apprentice Permit; the prior credential is inactivated when the higher license issues |
| Fees (individual) | FEL and planning classes $70 initial / $100 renewal, two-year term; Apprentice Permit $30 initial — TDI’s published schedule |
The classes, one by one
TDI states the work each license permits, and the permit statements are the license. Read the classes as scopes, not as ranks.
FEL-B — Type B Portable Fire Extinguisher License
An FEL-B licensee is permitted to install, certify, or service portable fire extinguishers, and to test DOT non-specification portable fire extinguishers. The boundary inside that sentence matters: the testing of DOT specification fire extinguishers must be completed by a Type C registered company, so the portable license’s testing scope stops at the specification line. Required tests: TFM02 and TFM01. This is the entry license of the structure — the credential the higher classes are built on, and the standing from which their six-month clocks run.
FEL-K — Type K Kitchen Cooking Systems License
An FEL-K licensee is permitted to install, certify, or service any pre-engineered fixed fire extinguisher systems used to protect a cooking area, and portable extinguishers. Standing requirement: hold an FEL-B license or an Apprentice Permit for a minimum of six months. Required tests: TFM02, TFM03, and TFM01. When FEL-K issues, the holder’s FEL-B license or Apprentice Permit is inactivated — the technician does not hold both; the kitchen license supersedes the portable standing it grew from.
FEL-A — Type A Fixed System License
An FEL-A licensee is permitted to install, certify, or service all pre-engineered fixed fire extinguishing systems and portable extinguishers. One planning boundary is written into the class: fixed fire extinguisher systems other than pre-engineered systems must be planned by an EPL or a professional engineer, though the installation and servicing of such a system may be performed by, or supervised by, an FEL-A licensee. Standing requirement: hold an FEL-B license or an Apprentice Permit for a minimum of six months. Required tests: all four — TFM02, TFM03, TFM04, and TFM01. When FEL-A issues, the prior Type B, Type K, or Apprentice credential is inactivated.
EPL — Type PL Planning License
An EPL licensee is permitted to plan, install, certify, or service fixed fire extinguisher systems, and is also permitted to sell, install, certify, or service portable fire extinguishers. The gateway differs in kind: the planning license requires the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET) Level III Special Hazards Systems test — with SFMO requiring NICET’s notification letter confirming successful completion at Level III in Fire Protection Engineering Technology and Special Hazard Suppression Systems — alongside TFM01. This program’s practice covers the TFM01 layer of the planning route; the NICET examination itself is NICET’s, prepared for through NICET’s own materials, and is not a subject of this guide beyond this statement of the requirement.
EAP — Apprentice Permit
An apprentice may install or service fixed fire extinguishing systems and portable fire extinguishers only under the direct visual supervision of a valid licensee, who certifies the work by signing the tag. No testing is required for the permit. The apprenticeship is the structure’s supervised entry: it starts the six-month standing clocks for FEL-K and FEL-A, and it ends — by inactivation — when a higher license issues. A licensed individual may not perform licensed services unless employed by a registered extinguisher company; that employment rule wraps the entire structure, apprentices included.
The four tests, one by one
TDI publishes the description that governs all four: all tests are closed book; each test has 50 questions that are true/false or multiple choice; questions may refer to a drawing, chart, or figure included with the test; technical test questions are based on the adopted standards; and no questions are based on a specific manufacturer’s equipment other than equipment generally referenced by an NFPA standard. Fifty closed-book questions is a demanding format — each question is two percent of the sitting, and nothing can be looked up — and the preparation methods below are written for it.
TFM01 — Extinguisher Statutes and Rules
All questions on this test are based on the Texas Insurance Code Chapter 6001 and the Texas Administrative Code 34.500, as TDI cites them. This is the law of the Texas extinguisher trade examined directly: the registration and licensing architecture, the work each instrument permits, the duties and prohibitions the statute and rules impose, and the consequences structure around them. Preparation method: read the two sources as operating documents, not as background. Build your study around the questions the test is positioned to ask — who needs which instrument for this described activity; what must happen before this work may be done; what does the statute require after it is done; what described conduct is prohibited. Because TFM01 is required for every class including the planning license, and replaced by no certification, schedule it as a first-class subject with its own study block in every plan this guide offers — the candidates who fail it are rarely weak technicians; they are technicians who treated law as a preamble.
TFM02 — Extinguisher Type B
All questions are based on NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, in the edition adopted in the rules. TDI’s published subjects, relating to portable fire extinguishers: general requirements; selection of the proper extinguisher based on the type of hazard or fire classification; distribution, inspection, and maintenance requirements; and hydrostatic testing of extinguishers, hoses, and related equipment. Preparation method: study NFPA 10 the way the subject list carves it — requirements, selection by hazard and classification, the distribution/inspection/maintenance complex, and hydrostatic testing — and hold the FEL-B scope boundary in view as you study, because the license’s own DOT specification testing limit is a TFM01-side fact that candidates routinely misfile as a TFM02 topic. Closed-book means the intervals and thresholds must be carried in memory attached to their extinguisher types; build the type-against-requirement tables in your notes and drill them in both directions.
TFM03 — Extinguisher Type K
All questions are based on NFPA 10, NFPA 17A (Standard for Wet Chemical Extinguishing Systems), and NFPA 96 (Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations), in the editions adopted in the rules. TDI’s published subjects: specific requirements for wet chemical systems; specific requirements for pre-engineered systems protecting cooking operations; requirements and frequency for system testing of systems protecting cooking operations; requirements and frequency for maintenance of those systems; and classification of fire types. The frequency pairing — testing requirements and frequency, maintenance requirements and frequency — is the test’s centre: cooking-area protection runs on stated cycles, and the items discriminate between candidates who know which act carries which frequency and candidates who know the acts as an undifferentiated list. Preparation method: build a two-column discipline into every topic — the requirement, and its frequency — and practise naming the governing standard for each item before answering, since three standards share this paper and a correct fact from the wrong one is a wrong answer.
TFM04 — Extinguisher Type A
All questions are based on eight NFPA standards adopted in the rules: NFPA 11 (low-, medium-, and high-expansion foam), NFPA 12 (carbon dioxide extinguishing systems), NFPA 12A (Halon 1301), NFPA 15 (water spray fixed systems), NFPA 16 (foam-water sprinkler and foam-water spray systems), NFPA 18 (wetting agents), NFPA 25 (inspection, testing, and maintenance of water-based fire protection systems), and NFPA 2001 (clean agent fire extinguishing systems). TDI’s published subjects: selection of the correct type of pipe and fittings permitted on various types of systems; requirements and frequency for system testing of various types of systems; requirements and frequency for maintenance of various types of systems; general knowledge of the various types of fire protection systems; identifying the correct applicable NFPA standard; and classification of fire types. Note what the subject list does: alongside the systems knowledge itself, it examines standard identification as a freestanding skill — given a described system, name its governing standard — and it examines testing and maintenance as requirements-and-frequency pairs across system types. Preparation method: organize study system by system, and for each system hold four things together — its standard, its pipe and fittings position, its testing requirements and frequency, its maintenance requirements and frequency — then drill cross-system comparisons, because the items are built from the differences between systems that sound alike. Eight standards at 50 questions is a breadth examination; the plan below rations depth accordingly.
The substitution rules, stated exactly
TDI publishes test exemptions under which ICC/NAFED certifications replace technical tests. Precision matters here, because the exemptions are class-specific and never reach TFM01.
- FEL-B: the Certified Portable Fire Extinguisher Technician Exam, offered by ICC and NAFED, can replace the requirement to take and pass the TFM02 technical exam.
- FEL-K: the Certified Portable Fire Extinguisher Technician Exam and the Pre-Engineered Kitchen Fire Extinguishing Systems Technician Exam, offered by ICC and NAFED, can replace the requirement to take and pass the TFM02 and TFM03 technical exams.
- FEL-A: TDI lists four ICC/NAFED certifications — the Certified Portable Fire Extinguisher Technician Exam, the Pre-Engineered Kitchen Fire Extinguishing Systems Technician Exam, the Pre-Engineered Industrial Fire Extinguishing System Technician Exam, and the Engineered Fire Suppression Systems Technician Exam — that can replace the requirement to take and pass the TFM02, TFM03, and TFM04 technical exams.
Three disciplines follow. First, the substituted candidate still takes TFM01: the statutes and rules test has no exemption, in any class. Second, the planning license’s NICET Level III test is not a TFM test and is not touched by these exemptions; where another testing provider is used, TDI directs that a copy of the NICET official score report accompany the application. Third, exemptions are TDI’s to publish and to change — a candidate relying on one confirms the current list on TDI’s page at application time, not from this guide. For candidates without the certifications, the position is simple and is the one this program prepares for: the TFM tests themselves are the route, and they are passable tests with published subjects and published references.
Scoring, scheduling, and restrictions
A passing score of seventy percent or better is required on each required test — the standard applies per test, not as an average across a class’s set, so every test in the stack must be passed on its own. PSI sends a copy of the official test scores to SFMO. Scheduling runs through PSI Exams Online at the address TDI publishes (psiexams.com/txfire), by phone, or by email. The restrictions are the strategic fact of the Texas system: you may schedule each type of test only once a week, and no more than three times in every 12 months. Read those numbers as a preparation budget — a class with four tests offers, in the worst case, a slow and rationed path, and the candidate who sits a test to “see what it is like” has spent one of three annual attempts on reconnaissance. The rational posture is the reverse: prepare to the published subjects until timed, closed-book practice at the full 50-question shape is consistently sound, then schedule.
Application mechanics and fees
Applications move as a set. TDI directs that company and individual applications be submitted together when both the company and the individual are new, that only one payment cover all fees, and that the individual application name the company where the employee will be registered — with a fingerprint receipt included unless fingerprints are already on file with SFMO. Individual license fees as TDI publishes them: the Type PL Planning, Type A, Type K, and Type B licenses each carry a $70 initial fee and a $100 renewal fee on a two-year term; the Apprentice Permit carries a $30 initial fee with no renewal fee published; a duplicate license, or a change or addition of employer, is handled on the revision application with a $20 fee. Company registrations, for context: the main office certificate carries a $450 initial fee and a $600 two-year renewal; each branch office $100 initial and $200 renewal; the hydrostatic testing registration $250 initial and $300 renewal; a copy or revision of a registration carries a $20 fee. TDI sends a renewal notice 90 days before expiration — after the initial renewal, notices run on the two-year cycle — and all fees are nonrefundable except overpayments resulting from mistakes of law or fact, with late fees charged as statute and rules require. Every figure in this section is TDI’s published schedule at the time of writing; the page itself is the authority at application time.
A study plan sequenced for the class stack
Step 1 — Fix the target (before any content study). Name the class you are seeking and the exact test set in front of you, including standing requirements: FEL-B candidates face TFM01 + TFM02; FEL-K adds TFM03 and the six-month standing rule; FEL-A adds TFM04. Candidates holding ICC/NAFED certifications should settle the substitution question now, from TDI’s current exemption lists, because it changes the study set — and every route keeps TFM01.
Step 2 — TFM01 as the foundation block. Study Chapter 6001 and the cited administrative code provisions as the trade’s operating law, organized by instrument and by duty. This block serves every class and every route, and it is the block with no substitute.
Step 3 — The technical layers in stack order. TFM02 next, for every FEL candidate: NFPA 10 by TDI’s subject list, with type-against-requirement tables drilled closed-book. FEL-K candidates then take TFM03’s three standards with the requirement-and-frequency discipline; FEL-A candidates then take TFM04’s eight standards system by system, with standard identification drilled as its own skill. Each layer assumes the one beneath it — the stack order is TDI’s order, and the plan follows it deliberately.
Step 4 — Full-shape rehearsal. Complete timed practice at the real shape for each test you will sit — 50 questions, closed book, no pauses, no references — then classify every miss: wrong requirement, right requirement misremembered, standard misidentified, or statute misread. Re-study by error class, test by test, until each test in your stack is sound on its own, because Texas passes tests one at a time and so should you.
Step 5 — Schedule against the restrictions. Book through PSI with the once-a-week and three-in-twelve-months limits in the plan from the start: sequence your tests so a single difficult test cannot strand the whole class, and leave the calendar room the restrictions demand. Confirm your employment-by-a-registered-company position and your fingerprint status before the first sitting, so a passed stack is never waiting on paperwork.
What makes these tests demanding
The demand is structural as much as technical. The format is unforgiving — 50 closed-book questions, each worth two percent, with facts that must be held rather than found. The stack multiplies sittings: an FEL-A outcome is four separate pass decisions, each rationed to three attempts a year, taken while a six-month standing clock and a two-year renewal cycle run in the background. And the content spans two different kinds of knowledge that do not substitute for each other — the statutes, which describe what Texas permits and requires, and the standards, which describe what the equipment requires — with the top technical test adding an eight-standard breadth problem and examining the identification of the standards themselves. Candidates who prepare the system — class, tests, subjects, restrictions, sequence — find each individual paper shorter than its reputation. Candidates who prepare only the standards meet the rest of the system in the scheduling portal and the statutes test, where it is more expensive to learn.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are on each TDI fire extinguisher test? 50 questions per test, in true/false or multiple-choice form, and all tests are closed book — as TDI publishes the test description. Questions may refer to a drawing, chart, or figure included with the test.
What is the passing standard? A score of seventy percent or better on each required test, as TDI publishes it. The standard applies test by test; PSI sends official scores to SFMO.
Which tests does FEL-A require? All four: TFM02 (Type B), TFM03 (Type K), TFM04 (Type A), and TFM01 (Statutes and Rules) — plus the standing requirement of six months holding an FEL-B license or an Apprentice Permit.
Can I skip TFM02 if I hold the ICC/NAFED portable extinguisher certification? TDI publishes that the Certified Portable Fire Extinguisher Technician Exam can replace the requirement to take and pass TFM02, for FEL-B and as part of the listed exemptions for FEL-K and FEL-A. TFM01 is never replaced. Confirm the current exemption list on TDI’s page when you apply.
How often can I retake a test? Each type of test may be scheduled only once a week, and no more than three times in every 12 months, per TDI’s published restrictions.
What references govern TFM03? NFPA 10, NFPA 17A, and NFPA 96, in the editions adopted in the Texas rules. TDI directs candidates to Texas Insurance Code Chapter 6001 and the administrative code to determine the latest adopted edition dates.
What references govern TFM04? NFPA 11, 12, 12A, 15, 16, 18, 25, and 2001, in the editions adopted in the rules — eight standards, with identifying the correct applicable standard itself among the published subjects.
What does TFM01 cover? Texas Insurance Code Chapter 6001 and Texas Administrative Code 34.500, as TDI cites them — the statutes and rules that create and govern the licensing system. It is required for FEL-B, FEL-K, FEL-A, and the planning license, and no certification replaces it.
What is the planning license’s test requirement? The NICET Level III Special Hazards Systems test — SFMO requires NICET’s notification letter confirming Level III in Fire Protection Engineering Technology and Special Hazard Suppression Systems — plus TFM01. This program’s practice covers the TFM01 layer; NICET’s examination is prepared for through NICET.
Do I need a job with a registered company before I can be licensed? Yes. TDI cannot issue an individual license until you are employed by a registered company, and a fingerprint background check is required unless your fingerprints are already on file with SFMO.
What are the license fees and terms? $70 initial and $100 renewal for each of the planning, FEL-A, FEL-K, and FEL-B licenses, on a two-year renewal term; $30 initial for the Apprentice Permit. TDI publishes company registration fees separately. Fees are nonrefundable except overpayments from mistakes of law or fact.
What happens to my FEL-B when FEL-A is issued? It is inactivated — TDI states the prior Type B, Type K, or Apprentice credential is inactivated once the higher license is issued. The classes supersede; they do not accumulate.
Are the companion program’s questions the real test questions? No. They are original practice questions written to TDI’s published test descriptions, subject lists, and reference lists. TDI and PSI do not release live test questions, and no provider can offer them.
When will the companion program open? The program is in the works. Join the notify list on this page or on the program page and we will email you when enrollment opens.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider; this guide and the companion program are not endorsed by, affiliated with, or sponsored by the Texas Department of Insurance, the State Fire Marshal’s Office, PSI, NICET, the International Code Council, or the National Association of Fire Equipment Distributors. The Texas fire extinguisher licenses are issued by TDI alone. The details in this guide are drawn from the official source recorded below and are current as of November 2026; TDI’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them.