Video: Hillsborough Fire Chief Discusses Seffner Sinkhole

Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers faced the media this morning, March 1, outside the home on Faithway Drive in the Greater Brandon area of Seffner, where a man sleeping in his bedroom the night before had been swallowed up by a sinkhole.

• See Photos From the Scene of Sinkhole in Seffner

The incident happend after 11 p.m. the day before, when the Bush family "heard a sound they described as a car crash emanating form the bedroom in the back of the house," Rogers said. "They rushed in and all they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole."

Jeffrey Bush's brother, Jeremy, reportedly jumped into the hole in an attempt to save his older brother, but "he had to be rescued by a Hillsborough's County Sheriff's Office deputy who was first on the scene, who heroically went in and extricated him," Rogers said.

At that time, fire and rescue personnel arrived on the scene, secured the home, evacuated the structure and began to assess the situation. Rogers said they used urban search-and-rescue equipment. Also, they inserted a camera into the hole and used a listening device that could detect "essentially, the sound a mouse would make walking across the floor; they're that sensitive."

They "did not detect signs of life," Rogers said.

"While this was going on, there continued to be collapses of earth below the floor to the point where they eventually had to back out of the house," Rogers said.

"Essentially the home is undermined," he added. Surrounding homes were evacuated "to ensure this did not become a bigger emergency than it already was."

Concerns about Jeffrey Bush were raised in a question-and-answer period after the filmed press conference.

“We’re going to do everything we can for Mr. Bush but we have to make sure we don’t endanger other people in the process,” Rogers said. “It doesn’t help to compound the situation.”

The course of action would depend on tests being conducted.

“We just don’t know how stable the house itself it,” he said. “Until we know that, we don’t know what our options are.”

The sinkhole is not visible from the street.

“It just looks like a large hole in the floor,” Rogers said.

That “hole” reportedly was up to 30 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep at the time of  the press conference.

“It takes up most of the inside of the house,” Rogers said.

The sinkhole started in the bedroom and extended out throughout the house.

“Sinkholes are very common in Florida,” the chief said. “I just know from living here my entire life that sinkholes are a part of life.”

As for the nearby residents asked to leave their homes for safety reasons, and the neighborhood itself, Rogers gave this assurance:

“We’re not going to leave here until we know this community is safe and the extent of the issue here,” he said. “We don’t know where the next sinkhole is going to open. We’re going to make sure everybody is safe before we leave.”