History
Founder Lou Witzeman, a newspaper reporter, 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. Witzeman felt something had to be done, went and 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 (in lieu of taxes). This was the origin of the Rural Fire Department, later renamed Rural/Metro Fire Department.
Read more about this topic: Rural Metro
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