An interview with David Bulbrook Borough Commander in the London Fire Brigade
A
s part of our ongoing series of profiles of
senior officers in the emergency services, we interviewed David Bulbrook, Borough Commander in the London Fire Brigade, to find more about his role and why he believes the fire and rescue service offers a great career.
He also gave us an insight into how the LFB are supporting the COVID-19 efforts.
a stint as an actor, roles in banking and housing and working on a building site. While deciding on his next role, he saw an advertisement on London Bridge that appealed to
him. “It involved a lot of areas I
was interested in: I love London, its
history and its role and influence nationally and
internationally and I wanted a
job where I can help people. LFB brings it all together and I have it found it a genuinely honourable job: people call for help and we respond.”
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Each local area has a Fire and Rescue Service with the core functions around not just fire safety and firefighting, but also rescuing people from road traffic accidents and responding to other emergencies, such as flooding or terrorist incidents. In London, each borough has a Borough Commander, for the City of London this is David Bulbrook. The City is, of course, the location for the headquarters of many banks and financial institutions so is of importance both nationally and internationally. It is also an area that hosts many buildings of historical significance. David feels privileged and honoured to have this role, “the jewel in the crown” of the London Fire Brigade.
Why join the Fire Brigade?
David had a varied career path before joining the London Fire Brigade, including
David has worked across the London Fire Brigade, including early postings at Greenwich, Southwark and Erith. He became a Regulatory Enforcement Officer for some years and then moved onto the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Project. “This provided an important grounding in major incident management and planning and preparing a large organisation to mitigate incidents.”
A significant part of his career has been in transport and infrastructure, including Crossrail. He headed up the team that produced operational response documents for all major transport projects and their associated technical infrastructure, such as power supply and tunnels, including sensitive sites whose infrastructure is of particular importance. “We have people at all levels, developing plans and tactics, for major or minor incidents – anything that could befall London, we prepare and train for.”
In his last post before this one, he was Staff Officer for Commissioner Dany Cotton, for whom he has great respect and admiration. “Dany very quickly made positive changes to attitudes and culture in the London Fire Brigade.”
Role in the City of London
As well as his operational role in the City of London, David now has a National Fire Chief Council role working with HS2, operational planning and British standards for transport infrastructure. He must provide well informed answers on central policy around all transport. This includes the current work on the Thames Tideway: “This is a unique operational
© CI TY S ECUR I TY MAGAZ INE – SUMMER 202 0
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