Seffner Sinkhole Operation Readies for Impending Demolition

The news turned from somber to grim for the family of Jeffrey Bush, who heard in the later afternoon March 2 that the mission at 240 Faithway Drive in Seffner had shifted from one of search and rescue to one of impending demolition.

Tragedy struck around 11 p.m. Feb. 28, when Bush, asleep in the back bedroom, awoke to the horror of being consumed by the earth. The sinkhole that caused his death has been described as "unprecedented," "extremely large" and "extremely unstable."

"We haven't been able to locate Mr. Bush and for these reasons the rescue mission is being discontinued," Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill announced to the public at the March 2 press conference, which began at around 5 p.m.

Family members had been told of the situation earlier.

Merrill said the sinkhole is a "huge cavern," and as such "it's very deep, it's very wide, it's very unstable." He confirmed that the neighbors on either side of the home at 240 Faithway Drive were allowed back into their homes for a short time today, March 2, to remove what they could one last time.

Merrill fell short of saying the homes, like the one at 240 Faithway Drive, had been condemned. But he did confirm that the occupants of all three homes would not be allowed back in.

Officials said it might be possible, during the demolition, to pull out some personal items from the home.

According to Ross McGillivray of Aradaman Associates, a firm specializing in geotechnical engineering and materials testing, the sinkhole is 20 feet wide at the top, but it "bells out to wider than that, which is the problem."

The sinkhole is within the footprint of the house, he added, so "any additional collapse, if anyone is near it, could [result in] serious risk or death."

The aim is to demolish the home, fill in the sinkhole and aim to stabilize the situation. "We feel the condition will be isolated," McGillivray said, when asked if additional homes in the neighborhood could be affected.

He said he has been working with sinkholes in Florida since 1972 and had never heard of a sinkhole here causing someone's death.

He added that the sinkhole had been growing for some time. "Years is the right answer, and maybe decades," he said.

McGillivray said when there is enough structural distress, you sometimes can see signs of a growing problem, such as cracks in the walls and distortion in the structure. But this sinkhole, he added, was entirely within the footprint of the building and below the slabs, so it wasn't obvious "until it became catastrophic."

"This is an incredibly unusual situtaion," he added. "I've never seen one like this before."

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