Man swallowed by Sinkhole

Sinkhole Swallows Man

Around 11 p.m. last evening a sinkhole opened under a man’s bedroom in Seffner, Florida.  Jeff Bush called out to his brother as the earth swallowed him up.  He is presumed dead.

Authorities have been extremely careful, and have not gone into the house.  They say they can hear the ground continue to break up.

Jeremy, Jeff Bush’s brother, tried to pull him from the hole but failed.

“It was something you would see in a movie. You wouldn’t, in your wildest dreams, you wouldn’t think anything like that could happen, especially here,” he said.

There were six people in the house when the hole opened up including Jeremy’s wife and their two-year-old daughter.

The first Hillsborough County deputy on scene, Deputy Douglas Duval, was able to safely pull the brother from the still collapsing hole. Neither the brother nor the deputy were injured.

“I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his hand and pull him out of the hole. The hole was collapsing. At that time, we left the house,” Duvall said.

It is unsafe for rescue teams to go near the expanding sinkhole, which is now approximately 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep with the unsafe zone extending 100 feet wide

“We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn’t see anything compatible with life,” Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. “The entire house is on the sinkhole.”

The house has been condemned by the engineers.  All homes surrounding the crumbling home have been evacuated.

James Turnage

Columnist-The Guardian Express