BinderWhich fire code does Texas use?
Texas does not work the way most states do. There is no single statewide commercial fire code edition that applies to every restaurant in Texas, and anybody who tells you there is has simplified something complicated. What applies to your kitchen is decided largely by your municipality.
What the state actually does
State law sets out minimum fire code requirements in some situations, and it references both of the major model codes: the Uniform Fire Code published by NFPA and the International Fire Code published by the International Code Council. The statutory hooks are Texas Government Code section 419.909 and 28 Texas Administrative Code rule 34.303, with Texas Local Government Code section 233.062 addressing unincorporated county areas.
Crucially, the law allows local governments in certain areas to adopt later versions of those codes. So the state establishes a floor in some circumstances rather than a uniform ceiling, and municipalities build on top of it.
Why we are not giving you an edition number
Every commercial article found while researching this page confidently stated a statewide edition, and they did not agree with each other. The state's own law library, which is the authoritative public guide to Texas codes, does not state a single edition either. That is not an omission on their part. It is a description of how the system works.
Naming a number here would make this page look more authoritative and would make it wrong for a large fraction of readers. Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth each maintain their own adoptions and amendments, and a restaurant in one is not under the same document as a restaurant in another.
What to do instead, and it is genuinely quick
- Call your city's fire marshal or fire prevention bureau. Ask which edition of the fire code they enforce and whether there are local amendments affecting commercial kitchen exhaust. This is the authoritative answer and there is no substitute for it.
- If you are outside city limits, ask the county. Unincorporated areas are handled differently and the county fire marshal is the place to start.
- Ask your kitchen exhaust cleaner. A contractor working your city every week generally knows the local amendments better than any published summary, including this one.
- Ask whether reports must be filed electronically. Several large Texas jurisdictions run third party reporting programmes. See how those work.
The part that does not depend on any of this
Whichever edition your city enforces, the underlying kitchen exhaust requirements reach you through NFPA 96, and you will be asked to produce dated evidence that the work was done. See why the code differs by state for how the layers stack.
This page describes what published standards say. It is not legal advice and it is not a determination about any premises. The requirements that apply to your building, including how often work must be done and what must be kept, are set by your authority having jurisdiction, which is usually your local fire marshal or health department. Where this page and your inspector disagree, your inspector is right.
Statutory citations taken from the Texas State Law Library's building codes guide, August 2026. That source does not state a single statewide adopted edition, and neither does this page. Confirm with your municipal fire marshal.
Keeping this straight without thinking about it
Binder does not decide your interval, which matters more than usual in Texas. You set it from what your authority tells you, the citation stays visible, and the record is kept either way.
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