City Council member Lovely Warren says that she fully supports letting the fire department use vacant houses for training. She just wants to know, she says, that the monument to their training won't be left standing ad infinitum.

"I don't have a problem with them tearing a hole in the roof if it's going to save lives," Warren says. "I just want to know that there's some type of method to the madness - within ‘X' amount of time, this house will be torn down."

The houses are owned by the city, she says, and are targeted for demolition. It is not known how many houses fit into this category, but there is one on the corner of Clifford Avenue and Garnet Street. And Warren says there is more than one on Treyer Street.

Council member Elaine Spaull says that these houses should be given special priority for demolition, if they don't already have it.

Demolition is a major issue in Rochester, where the housing stock is suited for a long-gone population exceeding 300,000. Vacant houses are a fire hazard, says Mayor Bob Duffy, and add to neighborhood blight.

"We are trying to take them down faster than we've ever done," he says.

The city uses contractors and has an internal team in the Department of Environmental Services doing demolitions. Duffy says that he hopes to have a team in each city quadrant sometime next year.

But it's not enough to demolish houses, Duffy says, you have to reshape neighborhoods; tearing down houses without a plan makes the city resemble a smile with missing teeth.

"We have to start reconfiguring neighborhoods in a way that meets our population," he says. "And doing it in a way that centers around community anchors that we have."