Sinkhole Swallows Man: Search Called Off

Rescuers have ended their effort to find the body of man swallowed by a sinkhole at his home in Florida.

The house will now be demolished, public safety officials said. 

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

Earlier, a recording of a woman's frantic 911 call pleading for help after the sinkhole swallowed her relative under his bedroom emerged.

Jeff Bush, 37, is thought to have died after vanishing when the ground opened up in Seffner, east of Tampa Bay.

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 at the "seriously unstable" house.

A relative telephoned the emergency services to raise the alarm.

Screaming, she said: "Yes, we need the ambulance and cops ... he's stuck under the house. The house just fell through."

The woman was asked: "What happened to the house?"

She replied: "The bedroom floor just collapsed, and my brother-in-law is in there, he's underneath the house."

Jeff Bush is presumed dead

Mr Bush's brother Jeremy said he jumped into the hole but could not see his sibling.

He had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy who reached out and pulled him to safety as the ground crumbled around him.

"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," Mr Bush said. "But I just couldn't do nothing."

He added: "I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him."

Mr Bush went on: "All I could see was the cable wire running from the TV going down into the hole. I saw a corner of the bed and a corner of the box spring and the frame of the bed."

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.

A dressing table and a television set had vanished down the hole, along with most of Mr Bush's bed.

County administrator Mike Merrill described the home as "seriously unstable".

He said no-one can go in the house because officials were afraid of another collapse and losing more lives.

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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