Any county mutual fire insurer, or two or more such insurers, may merge into a general mutual insurer described in this chapter by following the procedure in Article 9.5 (commencing with Section 7040) of Chapter 5, Part 1, Division 2 of this code. Such general mutual insurer shall become the surviving corporation.

In addition, by following the above-mentioned procedure any two or more county mutual fire insurers may merge, concurrently with the transformation of one of them into a general mutual insurer described herein, as provided in Section 7044. 5.