Williamsville · 165 Creekside Drive

Two short school buses — six special-needs students between them — low-speed-kiss in a Creekside Drive parking lot; everyone evaluated, no injuries, a police report required anyway

The first tone on Amherst Fire made it sound worse than it was: “Ellicott Creek, you have a minor motor vehicle accident involving a school bus with 60 students on board”. Twenty seconds later dispatch walked the count back and gave the real picture — two short school buses in the parking lot of the Summit at 165 Creekside Drive[*], “reported as 6 special needs students on board”. Ellicott Creek FD rolled; the buses had, per one wry dispatcher, “rushed each other”.

Amherst PD arrived to find no one hurt but everyone evaluated anyway. “They evaluate everyone due to the nature of the parties on the buses, but there was no injury”. Fire cleared the scene, Amherst PD stayed for paperwork.

Amherst · Main Street corridor

Forty minutes on Main Street: Amherst PD shadow-walks a developmentally disabled woman past Ms. Farrell's Pizza, past Raymour, toward home in the Eggert area

The call came in at 11:39 as “some sort of possibly learning disabled female running away from a family member here, westbound”. Her caretaker was on foot behind her, phoning it in. Three minutes later the officer had names on the air — “Last name is Han, Henry Adam Henry Nora, first name is Jennifer, common spelling” — and the reason the caretaker had picked up the phone in the first place: “The caseworker is just concerned because she was running in and out of traffic”. “She could be just having an episode. She is developmentally disabled”.

For the next thirty minutes the officer walked with her, at a distance, reading his cell number over the air — “I have the caretaker in my car, my cell number is 3-0-0-9-8, we're probably just going to escort her down Main Street to make sure she gets to the Eggert area safely” — so the caretaker could catch up. She passed Ms. Farrell's Pizza on the north side, then Raymour, and finally stopped talking to officers at the Tony Walker Plaza. Two units eventually cleared with a report on file. Not an arrest, not a hospital run — an escort home.

Amherst · Tim Hortons, 870 Maple Road

Two pedestrians struck in the same Tim Hortons parking lot at 870 Maple within five minutes; a leg injury on the first, a bicyclist down on the second

At 8:46, an Amherst PD unit put a pedestrian-struck out at the Tim Hortons at 870 Maple Road and Old Lyme, “there appears to be a minor injury sitting on the ground”. Five minutes later, Amherst Fire Dispatch broadcast the sentence that made the incident a story: “That's the second call of pedestrians struck by a vehicle. The parking lot is important. That's 870 Maple Road”. The second victim was a bicyclist; the second call was called out of Getzville. Getzville 2 arrived on location with a leg injury on the second patient.

Williamsville · South Cayuga Road at Wehrle Drive

Two-car MVA with injuries at South Cayuga Road and Wehrle Drive; Williamsville Fire evaluates three patients

Amherst PD called for a start at 1:47 p.m. for an injury accident at South Cayuga Road at Wehrle Drive[*]. Williamsville Fire took it as “Williamsville, motor vehicle with injuries”; five minutes later, on location: “two cars, evaluating three”, one patient sitting on the median.

Amherst · Creekside & John Klein

"Not sure if they're just taking a nap or if it's, uh, an intoxication situation": an Amherst officer hedges before contact at a Creekside bus stop

At 9:31 a.m., an Amherst PD unit put himself out of service on a person-down at Creekside and John Klein. What made the transmission was the sentence-and-a-half of honest uncertainty he read into the mic before he even reached the sidewalk: “We'll be out with the person down on the ground, uh, Creekside and John Klein. Not sure if they're just taking a nap or if it's, uh, an intoxication situation. Is that a bus stop, though”. Ninety seconds later he was back on the air, briefer and more relieved: “He's up talking to us”.

BNIA · United ramp

Red bag, non-red bag, red-tag-you: two minutes of United ramp poetry off Gate 15 at Buffalo

Around 10:13 a.m., an unnamed United ramp voice at BNIA asked the question that started it: “Copy. Did somebody hit the emergency stops on the side”. What followed was a two-minute exchange that reads, cold, like industrial verse. First, a hedge on the bags in front of him: “They're red bags, but they're cut off, but they're non-red bags, just so you know”. Then a question about the ones behind: “Was there any more bags for, uh, NORC”. And ninety seconds later, the resolution, delivered flat: “So, so we're going to have to, uh, red-tag you”. The reader is spared the identity of the tagged party.

BuffaloLimo dispatch · 07:18

Morning dispatch philosophy from BuffaloLimo: "Go twice as fast as a normal truck driver"

At 7:18 a.m., in the middle of an ordinary morning of car-service check-ins, a BuffaloLimo dispatcher offered one line of unsolicited advice to whoever was rolling next: “Go twice as fast as a normal truck driver”. No context, no follow-up, no correction from the other side of the channel.

Amherst PD · 09:41

Housekeeping: an Amherst officer clears a call, and clears the rest of his day too — "I'm gonna go knock out these prisoner meals now"

The whole transmission, verbatim: “Here's the report on file and I'm gonna go knock out these prisoner meals now”. Nothing else. A perfect two-part shift-plan, delivered mid-morning on the Amherst PD talkgroup.

Buffalo · across from 491 Ensley Avenue

Buffalo Fire runs a full house on a church fire across from 491 Ensley: three engines, three ladders, rescue, two battalions

At 2:05 p.m., BFD dispatch put a Level 2 church-fire assignment out across from 491 Ensley Avenue — “At the church, let's go for Engine 3, Engine 32, Engine 1, Ladder 5, Ladder 2, Ladder 6 at the FAST, Rescue 1, F20, F9, B43, B41, F49”. Ten minutes later the fireground was open on Ch. 2 with the interior command line: “I need you to stretch a two and a half into the front of the church”. A caller had reported visible flame.

Niagara County · 4029 Dickersonville Road, Ransomville

Working structure fire on Dickersonville Road in Ransomville — flames inside, white smoke off the back, Origin & Cause requested

Just before 9 a.m., Niagara County Fire Control paged a working fire at 4029 Dickersonville Road, between Schoolhouse and Palmer, in Ransomville. Half an hour in, the dispatcher summarized what the initial units were seeing: “There is white smoke coming out of the back of the house. Fire alarms are activated and flames are inside the house”. The Origin & Cause investigator for Area 3 was requested by 9:58, and dispatch worked the call for over an hour.

Wheatfield · Niagara Falls Boulevard between Ward and Erick

Male in his 20s, in a Nissan Rogue on Niagara Falls Boulevard, "extremely sweaty and a decreased level of consciousness" — three-way EMS response

At 2:39 p.m., Niagara County Fire Control put a three-way EMS response out on Niagara Falls Boulevard between Ward and Erick. The dispatcher read the description straight: “Niagara Falls Boulevard between Ward and Erick for a male in his 20s in a Nissan Rogue, extremely sweaty and a decreased level of consciousness, he appears to be in and out”. The profile — sweat, dropping consciousness, in and out — is the one paramedics read as an overdose until proven otherwise.

Somerset · Lake Mariner, 7725 Lake Road

Chest pain at the Lake Mariner data-center site — 36-year-old female, diaphoretic, guard-shack escort into the plant

At 8:20 a.m., NCFD dispatched EMS to the Lake Mariner campus at 7725 Lake Road, between Hosmer and Heartland. The tone read verbatim: “Lake Mariner, 7725 Lake Road, between Hosmer and Heartland, there will be an escort at the guard shack at the entrance to guide for a 36 year old female with chest pain and diaphoretic”. It is the second time in as many weeks that Lake Mariner has drawn a chest-pain page through the guard shack.