Vince DeJoy, city development director, said he officially declared emergency demolitions for all six properties — 220 Crossman St., 650 E. Sixth St., 621 E. Sixth St., 33 W. 10th St., 22 W. 11th St., and 441 Winsor St., — Saturday morning, even though some of the houses were already completely down.

Two of the properties were owned by county housing entities. During the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency meeting Tuesday, DeJoy said 220 Crossman St. was owned by the Chautauqua County Land Bank Corp. and was in the process of being demolished. He said the asbestos abatement had just finished, with the abatement company’s trailer still on-site during the fire. He added the contract for the demolition had been signed when the fire occurred. He said now the contractor will just have to finish knocking down the rest of the building following the fire.

On Thursday, DeJoy told The Post-Journal Citizen’s Opportunity for Development & Equality Inc. owned 650 E. Sixth St., which was slated for demolition this year. The house was one of the properties slated to be demolished for the Appleyard Greenway Park, which will be located near East Sixth and Winsor streets.

DeJoy said 621 E. Sixth St. was owned by Jamestown West LLC. He said it was a condemned property because of a previous fire at the location. He added it will be a private demolition.

City firefighters work to extinguish a fire on Crossman Street in March.

”I’ve been working with the owner and contractor to come up with a plan to demo the house,” DeJoy said.

The owner of 33 W. 10th St. had been paying property taxes, DeJoy said. He said the property owner had thought about trying to renovate the house, however, it had been abandoned for too long.

”Now they are stuck with the demolition,” DeJoy said.

DeJoy said 22 W. 11th St. was a zombie property that had been abandoned for a longtime. Zombie houses are vacant and abandoned properties that are not maintained during a prolonged foreclosure proceeding.

”It was a problem property for a longtime. It had been vacant for a longtime. Even before I came into this position,” said DeJoy, who became the city’s development director in February 2013. ”The neighbors have been voicing their concern, and they were well-founded.”

Sixth St. fire.

The person who owns the 22 W. 11th St. cannot be found, DeJoy said. The property had been condemned, but was not slated for demolition before the fire. He said now an asbestos survey will occur, which takes about three weeks.

”We will know if asbestos abatement is needed, and then it will be (demolished),” DeJoy said.

DeJoy said 441 Winsor St. was another zombie property that was purchased during the county tax foreclosure auction.

”I believe, once the person won the bid, they abandoned the house,” he said. ”Now we will have to go through the process of finding (the owner).”