Lone Star Fire Extinguisher Co. keeps McKinney businesses ready for the fire marshal’s visit: annual inspection and tagging, recharges, new units, mounting and staff training, all done at your property. We’re a family-owned company, run by the Brantleys since 1993, and our trucks carry the stock to fix what the walkthrough finds.
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McKinney’s Fire Marshal’s Office says it strives to inspect every business annually, and what it calls target hazards twice a year. It means the inspector is likely to see your extinguishers every twelve months whether or not anything about your business has changed.
When an inspection turns up a violation, the city schedules a re-inspection, typically ten days to two weeks later, to confirm it’s fixed.
Before your visit, we check that each unit has a current tag, the right rating for the room, the right mounting height and a clear path to it. If the inspector has already been through and left a list, send it to us and we’ll schedule the extinguisher items ahead of the re-inspection.
McKinney offers a different route for small, low-risk businesses. A business can review itself each year instead of getting a staff inspection if it meets all of these:
The business corrects whatever it finds, and every third year the fire department comes out for an on-site inspection.
In the years between those visits, the owner is the one vouching for the extinguishers. A current tag from a licensed technician is the simplest proof that they’ve actually been serviced. For a small shop the work is quick, usually one or two units, and we’ll book it for the same time each year.
McKinney requires a certificate of occupancy for a new tenant moving into an existing building, a change of ownership, or even a change in the business name. Until it’s approved, you can’t occupy the space or stock it. Both a building inspection and a fire inspection have to pass.
The fire side is booked with the Fire Marshal’s Office directly, and the city’s finish-out guide notes that the fire CO inspection is a general life-safety walk-through that typically isn’t scheduled for the next business day. Fire has to sign off before the city issues a CO or a temporary CO. Permission to stock comes only after every fire and building life-safety item is complete.
That sequence makes the extinguishers easy to leave until the last week. If you’re buying an existing business or signing a lease, call us when the paperwork starts. We’ll walk the space, tell you what the extinguisher side needs, and have it tagged before the fire walk-through is on the calendar.
Planning rack storage taller than twelve feet? McKinney requires a separate fire permit for that, so mention it when you call.
McKinney’s City Council adopted the 2024 International Fire Code in August 2025, and it took effect on October 1, 2025. The city also adopted the regional amendments shared across much of North Texas, along with its own.
One of those amendments changes what a storage building needs. The national code has an exception that lets some storage areas, where forklift and powered cart operators are the main occupants, carry extinguishers on the vehicles instead of fixed units on the walls. McKinney deletes that exception. In a McKinney warehouse, fixed extinguishers spaced through the storage area are required even if every operator has a unit on the truck.
The ordinance also says that where a fire code section references an NFPA standard, McKinney recognizes the most current published edition. NFPA 10 is the standard for portable extinguishers, so in McKinney the newest edition is the one an inspector works from.
McKinney’s amendments require companies that perform required inspection, testing and maintenance on fire protection equipment to send their reports to the fire code official electronically, following the Fire Marshal’s Office reporting guide. We file those reports for our work when McKinney’s local laws require it, so the fire marshal’s records line up with the service on your equipment.
Those rules land differently depending on what’s in the building.
McKinney’s downtown is, in the city’s words, one of the oldest thriving historic downtowns in Texas, with more than 120 shops and over two dozen restaurants. Older buildings often take on new uses, and every new restaurant means a K-class extinguisher for the cooking line. State rules tie it to the hood: during the semi-annual service on a kitchen suppression system, the hood technician confirms the kitchen’s backup extinguisher carries a Class K listing. That unit comes from us, mounted near the line, and rides on the same annual service as your other extinguishers.
McKinney’s airport supports more than 1,500 jobs. Hangars, maintenance shops and fuel areas each need units rated for the hazard in that space, and we size them accordingly.
With the forklift exception deleted, storage buildings here carry fixed units throughout. We map the travel distances, place the units and supply them in bulk.
About a quarter of McKinney’s homes are in multifamily buildings. Our work there covers the leasing office, clubhouse, pool equipment and maintenance areas, plus any extinguishers the community places inside apartments.
Food trucks have a new state license as of July 1, 2026, when the Texas Department of State Health Services took over licensing and McKinney stopped issuing local permits. The city still enforces fire and life safety rules, so the extinguishers on a truck still need current service.
In Texas, servicing and certifying a portable extinguisher takes a licensed technician working for a registered company, and the licensee signs the tag. Each year, our fire extinguisher inspection and certification service checks each unit’s gauge, pin, seal, hose, mount, sign and the path to it once a year, tags the units that pass, and fixes or replaces the ones that don’t.
After any use, even a quick burst, an extinguisher needs a recharge. We handle it through our fire extinguisher maintenance and recharge service covers recharges and the longer maintenance schedule: an internal examination every six years and a hydrostatic test every twelve for stored-pressure dry chemical units. We read the manufacture date on each cylinder and plan those dates ahead.
A new suite, a remodel or a warehouse layout change usually means placing units from scratch. Our installation and mounting service matches each unit to the hazard, sets travel distances, and puts it on a wall bracket or in a cabinet, at the height the code calls for.
We carry ABC, CO2, Halotron and K-class extinguishers, cabinets, commercial first aid kits and safety signs. Owners outfitting a warehouse or several properties can order through our equipment sales and wholesale service at bulk pricing.
If your staff have never pulled a pin, we can change that. We bring fire safety training to your site and fit it around your shifts.
Standard on every Lone Star job:
It can if the business is under 5,000 square feet, light-hazard and low-risk, has no sprinkler, fire alarm or kitchen hood suppression system, and doesn’t need an annual operational permit. You still correct anything you find, and the fire department inspects on site every third year.
Yes. A change of ownership, a new tenant or a new business name all need a certificate of occupancy here, and both the building and fire inspections have to pass before you occupy or stock the space.
In McKinney, yes. The city’s 2024 code amendments delete the exception that allows vehicle-mounted extinguishers in place of fixed units in some storage areas.
Typically ten days to two weeks after a violation is found, according to the Fire Marshal’s Office. Call us as soon as you have the report.
McKinney’s fire code recognizes the most current published edition of any NFPA standard the code references, and that includes NFPA 10 for portable extinguishers.
