Continuing Education

Once you have received your Texas Commission on Fire Protection (TCFP) Basic Structural Firefighter certification it is important to complete the continuing education requirements.

The Texas Basic Structural Firefighter certification continuing education requirements established by the TCFP can be accessed by clicking here.

Maintaining your TCFP certification requires completing 20 hours of continuing education (CE) annually. Click here to open the TCFP general rule requiring 18 hours of CE and here to open the rule that specifies two additional CE hours in structure firefighting.

The CE can be any of the subjects in Level 1 or Level 2 lists. CE from the Level 1 list has an hourly limit of no more than four hours. Level 2 courses do not have an hourly limit. EMT or medical courses can only make up four hours annually.

You will be required to maintain records of the training for three years. The easiest for me is to have a Fire CE file and in it folders for each year (2014, 2015, etc.). These folders are where I keep completion certificates. In the Fire CE file I also keep a spreadsheet with tabs for each year, columns of courses and the number of hours completed. If TCFP ever audits your records these are easy to send electronically.

A good source for CE is the National Fire Academy Online (NFA Online). Another source is the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. Both organizations provide free online courses. Most of the courses on the Level 2 list are offered by these two organizations.