What's on the Florida Fire Extinguisher Exam? Licensee and Permittee

What's on the Florida Fire Extinguisher Exam? Licensee and Permittee

The format

There is no published content outline

Pearson VUE publishes content outlines with topic weights for the Florida Contractor I–V exams. It publishes none for the portable extinguisher Licensee and Permittee exams. Anyone quoting you percentages for these two exams made them up.

What the sources do say:

• The statute. F.S. 633.304 says the exam tests "the rules and statutes governing the activities authorized by the license" and the candidate's "knowledge and ability to perform those tasks in a competent, lawful, and safe manner".
• The training course. The Fire College's Fire Extinguisher Technician course prepares students "to understand the Florida Statutes, Administrative Codes, and NFPA 10 as related to the installation, service, inspections, and maintenance of fire extinguishers and the responsibilities of the Licensee and the Technician."

So the exam has two halves: NFPA 10 and Florida law.

Half one: NFPA 10

NFPA 10 is the Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers. The technician's job maps onto it chapter by chapter:

• Selection. Fire classes, hazard classification, and which agent goes where.
• Installation and distribution. Travel distance, mounting heights, and how many extinguishers a space needs.
• Inspection. The monthly visual check and what to do when one fails.
• Maintenance. Annual maintenance, internal examinations and the six-year maintenance cycle.
• Recharging. Agents, what may be reused, and record keeping.
• Hydrostatic testing. Test intervals, pressures, and what condemns a cylinder.

⚠️ Edition. Florida's adopted fire code references the 2018 edition of NFPA 10. The current edition is 2022, and a handful of requirements changed between them. One example: the 2018 edition requires the premixed agent in AFFF and FFFP extinguishers to be replaced at least every 3 years. Know the differences.

Half two: Florida law

• F.S. Chapter 633. Licenses and permits, the license classes, service tags and serial numbers, extinguisher types that are unlawful to use, and discipline.
• FAC 69A-21. The dealer rules: permits, the required training course, continuing education, standard service tags and their specifications, hydrostatic test record tags, tamper seals, and invoices.

Licensee vs Permittee

Both exams test the same technical work. The Licensee is also the business's qualifier, so expect the law half to reach into the business side:

• license classes and what each allows;
• insurance on file with the State Fire Marshal;
• business locations;
• the duty to supervise all of the business's activities.

How to study for a closed-book exam

You cannot look anything up, so lean on numbers and intervals, because those are what closed-book exams test well. Know cold:

• the inspection frequency;
• the internal-examination intervals by extinguisher type;
• the hydrostatic test intervals;
• the service-tag rules.

Then practice under time pressure: 100 questions in 120 minutes is 72 seconds each.

Our free practice test covers both halves, and every answer cites the NFPA 10 section or Florida rule it comes from. The full question bank has separate Permittee and Licensee practice exams.