Rural Metro

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.

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 [2] in Federal Court in Delaware after missing an interest payment on its debt.

[4] In the event that Rural Metro Fire Department provides services to non-subscribers either in or around the communities they serve, the property owner is billed after the incident to recoup costs associated with the emergency.