Cheshire becomes president of State Firefighters and Fire Marshals Association
Harvie Cheshire, Training Director with the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, is the new president of the State Firefighters’ and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas (SFFMA). He assumed his new duties on June 8, during the 141st Annual SFFMA Training Conference in San Marcos, and will serve a one-year term. A member of the SFFMA since 1978, Cheshire has moved up in the executive ranks since he was elected fourth vice president of SFFMA in 2013. Organized in 1876, SFFMA is Texas’ oldest and largest fire association, with support of over 1,200 fire departments, 22,000 individual members, 80 industrial fire brigades, EMS and international departments. The affiliation of TEEX and Texas A&M University with SFFMA goes back to the beginnings of the Texas Fire Training Schools in 1930.
A native of Ennis, Cheshire began his career in the fire service as a volunteer firefighter with the Ennis Fire Department in 1977. Then in 1979, three days after graduating from Ennis High School, he began his full-time career with the Ennis Fire Department, where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant, and went on to serve as Fire Marshal and Assistant Chief for Forest Hill, TX, Fire-Rescue. Cheshire joined TEEX in 1994, and currently directs the Annual Fire Training Schools program for the Emergency Services Training Institute. He also serves as County Fire Marshal for Madison County and Deputy Chief / Fire Marshal for the Madisonville, TX, Volunteer Fire Department.
He holds an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Fire Safety Administration from Navarro College in Corsicana, and is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Office Program and the TEEX Fire Service Chief Executive Officer certificate program. He is also a graduate of the Ennis Fire Department Fire Academy and the Law Enforcement Academy at Navarro College.
Certified as a Master Firefighter and Master Arson Investigator as well as Master Peace Officer, Cheshire holds numerous other professional certifications. Besides his membership in SFFMA, he is a member of the International Association of Arson Investigators, National Fire Protection Association, ARFF Working Group and National Society of Executive Fire Officers.