Patrick Goulbourne

Assistant Commissioner, London Fire Brigade

Patrick joined London Fire Brigade (LFB) in 1997 starting his career at G27 North Kensington followed by service at Tottenham, Edmonton and East Ham Fire Stations rising steadily through the ranks where he served as Borough Commander in Islington and Tower Hamlets, before being promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Special Operations Group (SOG) now Operational Resilience and Control (OR&C).

In 2017, he responded in various command roles to the terrorist attacks at Westminster Bridge, London Bridge, Finsbury Park, Parsons Green, Fishmongers Hall, the fire at Grenfell Tower, the New Providence Wharf fire in 2021 and the 19 July Wildfire in 2022.

Also in 2022, Patrick was LFB Strategic/Gold Commander for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Operation London Bridge following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and in 2023 Operation Golden Orb, the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III and he also chairs the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) Bridges Coordination group.

As Assistant Commissioner of OR&C, Patrick is responsible for delivering LFB’s response to events (pre-planned or spontaneous), Blue Light Collaboration, Protective Security, National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer (NILO) and is the LFB’s operational lead for resilience in London. This includes the response to terrorism, public order, major and high threat incidents with Brigade Control responsible for all operations for the delivery of LFB’s emergency call activity. Patrick also chairs LFB’s Equality Support Group (ESG), providing a powerful voice and support to underrepresented groups within LFB.

Nationally, Patrick is the NFCC Counter Terrorism (CT) National Coordinator, responsible for the United Kingdom’s NILO cadre, the National NILO Coordination Office and the NILO foundation course. The NILO foundation course delivers acquisition training for all UK emergency service NILOs, fire sector officers in National Counter Terrorism Headquarters (NCTPHQ) and regional lead and Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) embed officers. This role includes directly supporting the NFCC Marauding Terrorist Attacks (MTA) capability, in addition to leading Protective Security operations and the Prevent duty.