The board that certifies Texas firefighters meets Thursday to approve its annual count of who got hurt on the job, alongside a staff analysis of four years of injuries on the fire ground. Both are unpublished; comments on specific agenda items were due 24 hours ahead.
The last report the commission released showed overall injuries falling — 4,129 firefighters hurt or exposed in 2024, down from more than 7,000 two years earlier — but almost all of that drop was covid exposures disappearing. Injuries during actual fire suppression rose every year from 2020 through 2024. So did cancer: 47 firefighters reported a diagnosis in 2020, 100 in 2024, half of them skin cancer. The commission added a line to that report saying the number “represents only a fraction of the cases that Texas fire departments are currently managing.” The white paper on Thursday’s agenda covers fire ground injuries and reporting from 2022 through 2025, which suggests the commission is now examining the gap between what happens and what gets filed.
The timing is not accidental. State law requires the commission to hand its injury data to the State Fire Marshal by September 1, and the agency has told the public the approved report will be online before then.
A second deadline lands the same day. A committee the Legislature created in 2025 to study suicide prevention and peer support in Texas fire departments must report to the governor and lawmakers by September 1, and its findings come to the commission Thursday. The committee has to say whether the state needs a law, whether counselors doing this work should be licensed, and how to keep what firefighters tell each other confidential. The panel itself expires in January.
The rest is regulatory housekeeping with real edges: final votes on curriculum manuals for driver-operators, structural firefighters and incident safety officers; a review of continuing education requirements; and rule reviews covering inspections and penalties. Watch whether the commission adopts the white paper’s findings or sends it back — the fire service will read that as a signal about how hard the agency intends to press departments on reporting.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9 a.m. CT Thursday, August 20, 2026. A workshop runs the day before at 1 p.m. in the same room. The operative notice was filed August 10, revising an earlier one.
- Where
- 4800 N. Lamar Blvd., Room 140, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Commission on Fire Protection — 13 members the governor appoints to six-year terms, drawn from fire chiefs, firefighters, volunteers, an engineer, an investigator, an instructor and four public members. Michael Glynn presides.
- Format
- In person only. The agency’s registration page offers no remote option. Comments on a specific agenda item had to be filed at least 24 hours in advance.
- Live video
- None announced. Nothing found on the agency’s registration page or channel indicating this meeting will be streamed.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency meetings page
Commissioners
- Michael Glynn, Roanoke — presiding officer; Fort Worth fire captain.
- David Coatney, College Station — assistant presiding officer; heads Texas A&M training.
- Bob D. Morgan, Fort Worth — secretary; senior fire protection engineer.
- Daniel Buford, Bryan — Bryan fire lieutenant; local union president.
- Christopher G. Cantu, Round Rock — public member; financial adviser.
- Sue De Villez, Georgetown — public member; retired nurse.
- Amanda Friedeck, Alice — public member; business owner.
- Paul Hamilton, Amarillo — volunteer firefighter, Potter County Fire and Rescue.
- Michael Johnson, Texas City — public member; student adviser and educator.
- James Mallinger, Cedar Park — Cedar Park fire chief.
- John Ortega Jr., Bexar County — deputy chief, county fire marshal’s office.
- Tim Smith, Lubbock — volunteer fire chief; emergency room nurse administrator.
- Brandon Wade, Corpus Christi — Corpus Christi fire chief.
The roster follows the agency’s own commissioners page, which shows all 13 seats filled. The agency publishes only the year each term ends, not the date; state law sets terms to expire February 1 of odd-numbered years, and the governor designates the presiding officer. The agency does not publish which statutory category each member fills, so the descriptions above come from published biographies rather than an official assignment. Mike Wisko is agency chief. The commission oversees roughly 850 regulated fire departments and about 495 training facilities, with records on more than 44,000 working fire protection personnel. Staff contact for this meeting: frank.king@tcfp.texas.gov.