MedTrans Purchases Professional Ambulance

MedTrans, a unit of Laidlaw Inc., has purchased Glendale-based Professional Ambulance Service Inc., the largest private paramedic provider in Los Angeles County.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Professional Ambulance said its operations and 185 employees would not be affected by the sale. The company operates 40 ambulances and has 12 stations, mostly in northern Los Angeles County.

MedTrans, based in San Diego, is one of the largest medical transporters in the United States. Laidlaw is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, and has about $2 billion in annual sales from its school bus and waste-management businesses.

Professional Ambulance is owned by Rand Brooks, 75, a former Hollywood actor who starred in a number of movies in his youth. Brooks will stay on as a consultant for at least two years after the company is sold.