More About the Term "Fire Buff
Fire Buff
(Oxford English Dictionary)
buff, n.
‘An enthusiast about going to fires’ (Webster
1934); so called from the buff uniforms worn by volunteer
firemen in New York City in former times. Hence gen.,
an enthusiast or specialist. Chiefly N. Amer. colloq.
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1903 N.Y. Sun 4 Feb. IV. 2/1 The Buffs
are men and boys whose love of fires, fire-fighting and
firemen is a predominant characteristic. 1907 A. M. DOWNES
Fire Fighters & Pets xiii. 159 The ‘buff’ is a
private citizen who is a follower, friend, and devoted
admirer of the firemen. 1931 LAVINE Third Degree vi.
62 A dentist, known to many cops as a police buff (a person
who likes to associate with members of the department and in
exchange for having the run of the station house does
various courtesies for the police).
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26 June 1909, Stevens Point (WI) Daily Journal, pg.
3, col. 4:
“The funniest kind of an alarm that I ever saw in a fire
station was a pie plate alarm,” remarked the dean of the
fire “buffs” to the others who were seated around waiting to
hear an alarm “hit in” at the engine house across the way.
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5 March 1910, New York Times, pg. 16:
Firemen from all over the city, from the Battery to the
Bronx, came or sent flowers yesterday to the funeral of John
Walls, the fire “buff.”
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When Johnny was not “buffing” he worked as an electrician
for the Edison Company in Brooklyn.
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16 February 1915, New York Times, pg. 9:
Simon Brentano, head of the firm of Brentano’s, booksellers
and publishers at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-seventh Street,
since 1877, and, according to Fire Commissioner Adamson, the
oldest “buff” associated wit hthe New York Fire Department,
died yesterday morning at his home, 34 Reynolds Terrace,
Orange, in his fifty-sixth year.
Fire Commissioner Adamson on learning of Mr. Brentano’s
death paid a high tribute to the old “buff.”
“Simon Brentano was our oldest fire buff,” he said. “There are a dozen of these left, but Mr. Brentano had been following the firemen longer than any of the others. A buff is a man who is enthusiastically interested in everything connected with the Fire Department, and who goes to every fire he can possibly reach, particularly the big ones. Mr. Brentano had been doing this for forty years, and he was known personally to all the older firemen and officers, and as a young man he used to run with the old Volunteer Fire Department. He was an intimate friend of all the Fire Chiefs and a particular friend of Chief Hugh Bonner. Mr. Brentano was a scientific student of fir fighting and spent a great deal of money developing devices to help the firemen, such as methods to prevent the hydrants from freezing, hose hoists, and distributing nozzles. He was a sincere friend of the department and will be greatly missed.
“Few understand the help that the buffs give
the department. They are always ready, night or day, to do
everything in their power to assist the firemen, and Mr.
Brentano was foremost in this work. The whole department
mourns the passing of its oldest buff.”
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28 February 1915, New York Times, pg. SM21:
THE ANCIENT ORDER OF BUFFS, INC
Well-to-Do Men Who Run
to All of the Big Fires
With Boyish Enthusiasm
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Counting Mr. Brentano, the number of New York City’s fire
Buffs – that peculiar group of well-to-do men who run to all
the big fires with the enthusiasm of a small boy – stood at
ten.
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A Buff is a man, mentally normal in every other way, who
would rather go to a fire at any hour of the day or night
than do anything else in the world. He takes it ver
yseriously; to him it is more than a hobby; it is a duty
that comes before everything else, except possibly the
welfare of his own family.
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Col. “Peggy” Thurston, as his admirers call him, is
President of the order, as befits the oldest Buff in point
of service. It was the general belief until his death that
Mr. Brentano had the distinction of being the oldest Buff,
but it was discovered that he did not begin running to fires
until 1874, whereas Col. Thurston dates his services from
1868, only three years after the department passed from the
old volunteer system to a paid organization. Nect in length
of service comes Howard Phelps, who was made a Buff in 1874.
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The most interesting figure of the Buff group is Col.
Thurston. Although over 60 he is as spry as any smoke-eater
in the department, and he has a record for bravery that any
one of them might envy.
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5 April 1925, New York Times, pg. SM10:
SCREECH OF FIRE SIRENS
IS MUSIC TO THE BUFFS
Every Blaze Is a Battle to This Odd Clan
of
New York Millionaires and Street Boys
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The very word “Buff” was cradled in active service. In the
old days when there was no paid department in New York and
volunteers fought the city’s fires – very distinguished
volunteers they were, too, for the leading members of social
and business life considered it an honor to run with the
engine – the rivalry between companies sometimes burned more
hotly than the fires. So hotly did they rage that the
firemen often fought each other instead of fighting the
fire.
How the Name Originated
Assault and battery was only one of the more
obvious methods which an up-and-coming company would use to
get “first water” or “wash” its rival. Another method was to
have one of two of its members sleep in the company quarters
to toll the apparatus out with the least possible delay
should an alarm of fire be received at night. These men used
to sleep on buffalo robes and got the names of “buffaloes.”
But buffaloes was too long for quick action and soon it was
shortened to “buffs.” The most ardent volunteers were the
“buffs” of volunteer days; and “buffs” they are today.
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29 January 1956, New York Times, magazine section,
pg. 30:
About:
Fire Buffs
By MURRAY SCHUMACH
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BUFF, according to H. L. Mencken’s “The American Language,”
is “said to be from buffalo and to have been suggested by
the fact that the wealthy young men who belonged to the
early volunteer fire companies commonly wore buffalo skins
in winter.” According to Mr. Cavanagh, who claims about
forty years of research in this field, these volunteers,
abou 100 years ago, used to hail one another at a fire as
“buffalo.” The term shrank to buff.
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(Pg. 32 – ed.)
No matter what happens to fire buffs, the term buff has been
spreading to other fields, to include a man who shows
extraordinary interest in a fields outside his business or
profession. Thus, there are jazz buffs, Civil War buffs,
baseball buffs, theatre buffs. Eventually there may be buff
buffs.
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The word “buff” now can mean a “movie buff”
or a “sports buff,” but it all began with the “fire buff” in
New York City. “Buff” is short for “buffalo.”
End
