Sinkhole Swallows Man: House Demolition Begins

Engineers have begun to demolish a house where a man was swallowed up by a sinkhole that opened up under his bedroom.

It comes after rescue teams called off their efforts to find Jeff Bush's body as they considered it too dangerous to continue.

They feared the "seriously unstable" house could collapse on them if they tried to search for him.

"Our data has come back, and there is absolutely no way we can do any kind of recovery without endangering lives of workers," said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico.

Before the search was abandoned, engineers found the soil in the slowly growing sinkhole around the home was very soft and believed the entire property could eventually be swallowed up.

"At this point it's really not possible to recover the body," Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said, adding "we're dealing with a very unusual sinkhole".

Jeff Bush is presumed dead after being swallowed by the hazard

Mr Bush, 37, who is presumed dead, vanished when the ground opened up in Seffner, east of Tampa Bay.

It dragged him down along with everything else in the bedroom.

Five other people were at the property as the floor began to fall through into the hole estimated to be six metres across and six metres deep. But no-one else was injured.

Jeremy Bush, who tried to rescue his brother, lay flowers and a stuffed lamb near the house and wept.

Crews will try pulling part of the property away from the sinkhole intact so some of the residents' keepsakes can be retrieved.

They have been testing the unstable ground surrounding the home and have evacuated two nearby houses as a precaution.

Sisters Soliris and Elbairis Gonzalez, who live on the same street, said neighbours were worried about their safety.

"I've had nightmares," Soliris Gonzalez, 31, said. "In my dreams, I keep checking for cracks in the house."

They said the family has discussed where to go if forced to evacuate, and they have taken their important documents to a storage unit.

Jeff Bush's cousin Kyle Balcom (L) and brother Dustin Bush

"The rest of it, this is material stuff, as long as our family is fine," Soliris Gonzalez said.

"You never know underneath the ground what's happening," added 30-year-old Elbairis Gonzalez.

Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because there are caverns below ground of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water.

They are so common that state law requires home insurers provide coverage against the danger.

Mr Bush said someone visited the home a couple of months ago to check for sinkholes and other things, apparently for insurance purposes.

"He said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing. And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole," he said.

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