United States (California) - Placer Fire Equipment, a Rancho Cordova-based company that builds fire apparatus for numerous local and state agencies, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, court records show. The company's owner and president, Stephen Israel, filed March 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of California, in Sacramento. A Chapter 7 filing is a liquidation bankruptcy in which a trustee sells off the debtor's assets to pay creditors.

Placer Fire owes creditors about $3.8 million, according to court filings. Chief among the debts:

-- $947,000 line of credit from Folsom-based Sierra Vista Bank.

-- $912,770 to Atlanta truck dealer Nalley Motor Trucks.

-- $247,000 in back sales taxes to the California Employment Development Department.

-- Approximately $199,000 to truck dealer Nebraska Truck Center for 20 trucks.

-- Nearly $63,000 to Sacramento County Airports.

The company also owes about $6,000 in back wages to eight employees, court records show.

In business at the former Mather Air Force Base since 2002, Placer Fire claimed the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the governor's Office of Emergency Services and the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District among its clients.

Last August, the firm won a $302,085 federal contract from the U.S. Forest Service's Golden, Colo., office to provide crew carrier truck bodies, according to news reports.

U.S. Forest Service officials did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

Placer Fire also had a relationship with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, building two- and four-wheel-drive vehicles for the agency during the past decade, including a new, larger production model it introduced in 2005.

But by 2009, Cal Fire had discontinued use of Placer Fire's vehicles and gone to Michigan-based HME Apparatus for its four-wheel-drive trucks.

Cal Fire spokeswoman Janet Upton said she did not know exactly when the agency ended its contract with Placer Fire.

Placer Fire's signature was building sophisticated wildland firefighting and light rescue vehicles at its Missile Way plant. It expanded its product line several years ago to add water tenders to the production line.

But court documents show that its fortunes quickly turned over the past 24 months. The company, which posted income of more than $1.6 million in 2008, was more than $1 million in the red last year and already had lost more than $98,000 this year when owner Israel pulled the plug last week.

Neither Israel, nor the company's attorney, Julius Engel, returned telephone calls Tuesday seeking comment.

A hearing is set April 7 in federal bankruptcy court in Sacramento.

Written by The Sacramento Bee