Rural/Metro set to emerge from bankruptcy

[Rettungswagen 17]

Rural/Metro Corp. is poised to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the next few weeks.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/health-care-daily/2013/12/ruralmetro-set-to-emerge-from.html

[Rettungswagen 17]

The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 17, 2013 10:48 a.m. ET

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The plan wipes out the equity stake of Warburg Pincus LLC, which bought Rural/Metro for $738 million in June 2011, in a deal with substantial debt funding.

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[gunhog11 1]

It's interesting how each Rural Metro operation runs like a separate corporate entity.  To see the differences between RMs Maricopa/Pinal county operation vs the Pima County operation, is almost night and day. For example, apparatus-wise, Maricopa's reserve apparatus are in far nicer shape than many first-line Pima County apparatus. Pima has always been somewhat of a redheaded stepchild, so to speak, in that realm. 

 

One specific example I'll give; the EMS manager vehicles are run-down Crown Vic's which had constant issues, and a few somewhat nicer SUVs. However RM purchased 4 new trucks for Fire Inspectors. The new trucks were nice, though somewhat overkill, and the Inspectors loved to drive them.....right up until they got repossessed one day.

 

It's just somewhat sad to see how some of the entities of RM are run in certain ways, as RM used to be an innovator in research and development of equipment and the like. I can still remember the firefighting remote-control robots they designed in their Scottsdale shops in the 1980s. Former Engine 11 at what was then station 11 on Scottsdale/McDonald had one of these robots stored in a rear compartment of the engine, and could deploy it into structure fires. I don't remember how many times it was ever used real-world.  Today, one of these robots still exists; stored in a back storage facility of RM Station 71 in Tucson on Benson Highway/ Valencia. The young firefighters have no idea what it is, and many of the older ones have no idea how it ended up where it did, as none were ever used in Pima County.  I'll have to snap some photos of it next time I'm down there.....