First Look At Florida Sinkhole That Swallowed Man

Images of the 60-foot sinkhole that swallowed 37-year-old Florida resident Jeff Bush in February have been made public for the first time. A Hillsborough County contractor attached a camera to a long, orange pole and stuck that camera through the bedroom window of the house in order to get the footage, as the house was deemed too dangerous to return inside after the sinkhole opened up.

Bush was in bed in his family’s Seffner home when a sinkhole opened up beneath his bedroom floor, pulling Bush and the rest of his bedroom furniture down into the deep hole. Bush’s brother, Jeremy, quickly jumped into the hole to try to save his sibling, but was unable to locate him and had to be saved from the sinkhole himself. Bush was presumed dead just a couple of days later. Seeing the hole in the ground now after the event is not as chaotic as the day of. Instead, it looks like a deep, dark bottomless abyss—something out of a scary fairytale or fantasy story.

Jeremy Bush spoke with Tampa’s Bay News 9 to talk about the differences he see in the footage versus what he saw the night of the disaster.

County officials eventually determined it would be too dangerous to recover the body and filled in the sinkhole, also opting to demolish the one-story house the Bush family resided in. Additionally, a few of the nearby houses were also evacuated after officials feared another sinkhole might open up in the area. Sinkholes are fairly common in certain areas and can cause damage to property and, as in this case, tragedy.