to buff or not to buff... that is the question.

[BUDS189]

how many of you guys/gals buff jobs. a couple of people at my station love to sign out multiple radios and listen to PD and buff every job that comes over. i dont buff any, but i love when they do. personally i just rather sit at my CSL and play my PSP (tiger woods golf rules. lol).

[BEorP]

Buff?

[Asysin2leads]

Buff, like bus, and skell, is a New York term that people in the system usually forget no one else uses.

To buff is to respond to a job that the dispatcher didn't assign you. This usually occurs when the triple shooting at the MVA during the structure fire occurs and a crew is really bored or they want to make the morning paper.

Since EMS jobs in the FDNY EMS system come in through PD before it is relayed to EMS, the truly savvy buff (which is also a noun, meaning someone who is a little too excited about the job, akin to a whacker in other parts) will be monitoring PD frequencies to get the jump on that call.

A buff is also someone who poses in their yellow pants next to a suppression vehicle. Sorry, I had to say it.

[AnthonyM83]

We call that jumping calls.

A lot of us scan FD. If you're on the toilet, showering, or eating, you get a little heads up. Useful since we only have 60 seconds to say 'enroute' from ambulance radio.

The ones who actually like EMS like being there before FD, since they often crowd you out when they arrive, then you're just the gurney biatch. Little point in running calls if you're not getting experience out of it.

Most EMTs don't seem to like running calls, though, so my partner and I will jump a lot of them. Each call is a chance to learn. We try not to only jump the good calls, because it's kind of like cheating. We can only jump it if we're closer, though.

And yes, PD dispatches while FD is still taking the GSW/Stabbing calls. You'll also hear officer downs (kinda common) go out first.

The problem happens when you have "Ricky Rescues" speeding to calls they hear on the FD frequency, so they can magically always be the closer unit when dispatch asks their location.

[CBEMT]

Lots of people in the Northeast buff fires- active firefighters on their free time, retired guys, people who are trying to get on, amateur and freelance photographers, etc.

Nobody buffs EMS jobs though, except for the occasional extrication.

[itku2er]

That is what we call it too Anthony is call jumping. It used to be bad here but anymore people are like what ever if we go we go if not we can sit here and do nothing and still get paid.

[paraloco]

In the 80's,we called that scanner jumping. We had not 1, but 2 scanners mounted in the ambulance and were expected to listen religiously to everything that went over the air from every agency. Dispatch did too, and as as soon as a wreck was put out over the air, we were running to the truck. The idea was to beat the competition to the scene. We got really good at it.

[paraloco]

Oh, and we justified it by pointing out that response times were short.

[firedoc5]

In the 80's,we called that scanner jumping. We had not 1, but 2 scanners mounted in the ambulance and were expected to listen religiously to everything that went over the air from every agency. Dispatch did too, and as as soon as a wreck was put out over the air, we were running to the truck. The idea was to beat the competition to the scene. We got really good at it.

That's what we called it also, scanner jumping. But since we were the only ambulance serv. we knew we would eventually be called. We'd hear either fire depts. tone out and sometimes it would be up to 2mins. before we would get the actual call. So we would already be en-route when we did get the call. And a few times we'd already be at the scene. While en-route our dispatch would confirm the call in and we'd just say we were "10-4 direct". Saved a lot of time.

But in other counties that did have multiple services, it caused a lot of problems. Sometimes just short of an "ambulance war". Now those were brutal at times.

[ERDoc]

Oh man, this topic brings back some memories. I will admit it, I was a buff (whacker for those of you not from NY). I would go out with a couple of friends in one of our personal vehicles with a scanner. We'd hang out but when something "good," came across we'd head off and try to beat the FD/VAC to the scene. Yeah, looking back on it now it was a really stupid thing to do, but it sure was fun. Oh, to be 17 or 18 again.