2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB3687
HB3687 sets certification requirements for county fire marshals in counties with at least 100,000 people and emergency-services-district fire marshals in districts wholly within such a county.
Official caption: Relating to certification requirements for a fire marshal and any related employee, officer, inspector, and investigator appointed by certain counties and emergency services districts.
Official report lists House author(s): Harless. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB3687 sets certification requirements for county fire marshals in counties with at least 100,000 people and emergency-services-district fire marshals in districts wholly within such a county.
- Under the new standing provisions, a covered marshal must hold Texas Commission on Fire Protection certification as head of a prevention-only fire department within 12 months of initial appointment, fire protection personnel certification within 12 months, and fire marshal basic certification within 24 months.
- Already-serving marshals are not simply exempted: Section 3 separately governs covered marshals initially appointed before September 1, 2025.
- The law adds professional-credential conditions.
What does it do?
HB3687 sets certification requirements for county fire marshals in counties with at least 100,000 people and emergency-services-district fire marshals in districts wholly within such a county. The word “wholly” matters: the district provision is not written to cover every district that merely overlaps a qualifying county. The law took effect September 1, 2025. Final law.
Under the new standing provisions, a covered marshal must hold Texas Commission on Fire Protection certification as head of a prevention-only fire department within 12 months of initial appointment, fire protection personnel certification within 12 months, and fire marshal basic certification within 24 months. If acting as a peace officer, the marshal and related officers, inspectors and investigators must hold a permanent peace-officer license. A marshal or employee conducting or supervising arson investigations or fire inspections under fire-marshal authority must hold the fire-inspection certifications required by the commission under Government Code Chapter 419. The peace-officer and inspection provisions do not state the same 12- or 24-month grace periods.
Already-serving marshals are not simply exempted. Section 3 separately governs covered marshals initially appointed before September 1, 2025. It requires, within 12 months of that date—September 1, 2026—head-of-suppression-fire-department certification as well as head-of-prevention-only certification and fire protection personnel certification. Fire marshal basic certification is due within 24 months—September 1, 2027. A permanent peace-officer license is required if acting as a peace officer. The suppression-head item appears in this transition list but not in the standing list for newly appointed marshals; the explanation preserves that difference rather than assuming the two lists are identical.
The law adds professional-credential conditions. It does not order every county to create a fire marshal’s office, remove the existing conditions for creating a district office, or give every employee peace-officer authority. County framework; district framework.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill, House report, engrossed text, Senate report and enrolled law contain the same operative provisions, including the different transition list. The amendment index reports no amendments. Both committees reported the bill without amendments and no conference rewrite occurred.
The House passed it 117–26 with one member present but not voting; the Senate passed it 29–2. The governor signed it June 20, 2025. Official history.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Residents and property owners may benefit from more consistent credentials among officials performing fire inspections and investigations. Covered marshals and employing governments must arrange any missing training, testing and certification, and must track the different appointment-based and transition deadlines. The act does not itself establish a training grant or reimburse those expenses.
The May 14 fiscal note anticipates no state fiscal implication and no significant local fiscal implication. That assessment does not establish that every covered individual already has all credentials or that acquiring them costs nothing.
Review boundary: This is a description of HB3687’s enacted requirements, not a determination that a particular marshal holds the right credentials or has complied. The transition requirement for a suppression-department-head certificate is included because it is in the final act, even though the ongoing codified appointment lists differ.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
