A Florida sinkhole swallowed Jeff Bush, 37, while he was in his room on Thursday. His brother and five other residents, including a small child, made it out of the home unharmed
As engineers on Saturday continued probing the ground around the sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man from inside his bedroom, officials called off the effort to recover his body.
Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said late in the afternoon that they were ending the attempt to find Jeff Bush's body.
Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night in his Seffner, Fla., when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room.
Workers using "deep soil probes" gingerly tested the ground around the house, about 15 miles east of Tampa, looking for steady ground, said Jessica Damico, a spokeswoman with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, which is leading the operation. The sinkhole could stretch to as much as 100 feet across directly beneath the surface and plummet up to 60 feet deep into the earth, she said.
Teams of rescue and emergency management workers — more accustomed to tackling destruction from hurricanes and other natural disasters — were trying to determine how best to proceed with the deadly sinkhole, Damico said. Sinkholes are common in Florida, but it's rare when one opens up under a home and takes a person with it, she said.
"I can't think of anywhere in the country where this has happened before," Damico said. "This is very unique."
Merrill said officials planned to bring in heavy equipment on Sunday to begin demolishing the home.
"We're dealing with a very unusual sinkhole," he said.
STORY: Sinkholes are common in Fla. but rarely cause death
Bush, was in his bedroom in the one-story home on Faithview Drive at about 11 p.m. Thursday when the sinkhole yawned directly under him, taking him, his bed and the rest of his bedroom furniture as well, Damico said.
His brother jumped into the hole to try to save Bush but had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy. Five other residents, including a small child, made it out of the home unharmed, Damico said. Bush could not be rescued and is presumed dead. Workers cannot recover the body until the ground is deemed safe enough to support heavy equipment, she said.
"We're at a standstill there," Damico said.
Two adjoining houses — one on either side of Bush's — were evacuated by rescue workers. Red Cross officials on the scene are working to place those residents in temporary housing, she said.
The opening to the sinkhole in the home is about 20 feet across but could be five times that wide directly beneath the ground, Damico said. The sinkhole also appears to be 15 feet deep inside but could be up to four times that deep, she said.
"Think of it as an hourglass," Damico said. "You have an opening then a wider part directly beneath it."
Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because there are caverns below ground of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water.
"You can almost envision a piece of Swiss cheese," said Taylor Yarkosky, a sinkhole expert from Brooksville, Fla. "Any house in Florida could be in that same situation."
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