Rural Metro
Rural Metro Fire Department, founded in 1948, is an American private fire department that provides fire protection and emergency medical services to individual homeowners and commercial businesses in unincorporated locations throughout the United States, primarily under a subscription-based model. Municipalities and fire districts also contract Rural Metro Fire to provide fire protection, prevention and emergency medical services.
Rural Metro Corporation, is a private ambulance company owned and operated by American Medical Response, and is not associated with Rural Metro Fire Department.
History
The company was founded by Lou Witzeman, a newspaper reporter, after he witnessed a house fire near his home just outside the city limits of Phoenix, Arizona in 1948. There was no fire department established for the area; so Witzeman, feeling something had to be done, purchased a fire engine and proceeded to go door to door asking residents to subscribe to the new fire service by paying an annual membership fee. This was the origin of the Rural Fire Department, later renamed Rural Metro Fire Department. In the 1980s, the company expanded into ambulance service. Rural Metro Fire began listing shares in 1993 on the NASDAQ exchange under the stock symbol RURL.In 2011 investment fund Warburg Pincus purchased Rural Metro in a $438 million cash deal. By early 2013 Rural Metro filed for Chapter 11 restructuring in Federal Court in Delaware after missing an interest payment on its debt. The reorganization would see bondholders infuse $135 million in new capital. Some contracts were renegotiated but no services were affected.
In 2015, Rural Metro Fire merged with and senior management was released or merged into the parent corporation. In 2018, both American Medical Response and Rural Metro Fire became part of .
In 2024, Global Medical Response sold Rural Metro Fire to Brindlee Fire Services.