Engineers are talking about the tough decisions they and Hillsborough County officials had to make to give up on rescue efforts during a fatal sinkhole in Seffner.
A new report released details the frantic efforts, and why rescuers say they couldn’t get to Jeremy Bush, who was swallowed by the sinkhole in February while he was asleep in his bed.
“People thought it was a cave opening with solid rock walls and things like that. But we know that wasn’t the case,” said Drew Glasbrenner, a geologist with Bracken Engineering.
After authorities saved Jeffrey Bush, Jeremy’s brother from the sinkhole in the home, they cleared the area and tried to lower listening devices and cameras into the 20 foot sinkhole hoping for answers. The Earth swallowed one of their devices though, proving it was too dangerous to send anyone or anything back in to look for the missing man.
Glasbrenner says there was a widespread misconception that the sinkhole was just a big hole that rescuers could look inside. But he says it was more complex than that.
“It wasn’t an open hole down the 50 feet, we could see 20 to 25 feet through the camera. So at the bottom of that you have loose sands, that wouldn’t support any weight at all,” he said.
Engineers then tested soil in and around the home and learned the disturbance was bigger than they expected. Records show it was about 50 feet across. The safety zone set by authorities was twice that length.
Even though they were hoping to recover Bush’s body for his family who was watching every moment of the recovery efforts, they made the decision to demolish the home instead to keep anyone else from danger.
Glasbrenner says to imagine the sinkhole like an hourglass tipped over, with sand and rock slipping down further into the Earth.
The report also shows part of the home’s foundation showed signs of corrosion, no match for the massive sinkhole. Geologists say they found nothing that could have triggered the collapse.
They attributed it to natural causes.
The sinkhole has since been covered with gravel to stabilize the ground. But both homes on either side are in the process of being demolished. That process should wrap up by Friday.