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.”
(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.
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).
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.
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.”
When Johnny was not “buffing” he worked as an
electrician for the Edison Company in Brooklyn.
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 with the 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 forforty 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.”
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
29 January 1956, New York Times,
magazine section, pg. 30:
About:
Fire Buffs
By MURRAY SCHUMACH
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.
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.
