BRANDON, Fla. (WFTV) -- Officials said the Tampa-area home where a sinkhole opened up under it will be demolished and recovery efforts for the man who fell into the sinkhole have been suspended.
Officials said the Tampa-area sinkhole is too unstable for the heavy equipment needed to recover the man who fell into the sinkhole Thursday night.
At a press conference Saturday evening, officials said crews are making plans to begin demolishing the home on Sunday.
Jeff Bush, 37, fell into the sinkhole that opened up underneath his bedroom in his home on Faithway Drive in Brandon. The sinkhole is now estimated to be around 60 feet deep, officials said.
Jeremy Bush, who was home at the time, said he fears his brother was killed when the sinkhole formed directly under his brother's bedroom around 11 p.m.
Engineers arrived at the home Saturday morning to survey the ground around the property. Officials describe the hole as "seriously unstable" and said it will continue to grow.
Officials said heavy machinery will be needed to go into the sinkhole and recover Bush, who is presumed dead. At this point, officials believe the ground is not stable enough to support the necessary equipment.
"The soil cannot hold the slope that it has right now, so we do expect the sinkhole to get bigger," said Larry Madrid of the Madrid Engineering Group.
Engineers spent much of the day Friday mapping a grid of the soil and brought in a drill to take soil samples. They said the limestone layer was 57 feet down.
The opening to the hole is contained within the home, but the void beneath the surface could be three to four times that size, officials said.
Jeremy Bush said he ran into his brother's bedroom when he disappeared into the sinkhole, but he said he could not save him. He said on Friday that he is grief-stricken and wants the search to continue."Just to get closure, I guess. Make sure he's not dead. See if he's alive. I know in my heart he's dead, but I just want to be here for him because I love him. He was my brother, man," he said.
Jeremy Bush told rescue crews he heard a loud crash, and then heard his brother screaming for help. "When he got there, there was no bedroom left," fire rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. "There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up."
"It's just sad. I work with my brother every day. He was there with me every day. We did everything together," said Bush.
Bush called 911 and frantically tried to help his brother. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duval was first on the scene. He pulled Jeremy Bush from the still-collapsing house.
"All I could see was a giant hole and there was somebody in it," said Duval. "I focused on Jeremy because I noticed it was collapsing around him." There has been no contact with Jeff Bush since then, and houses on both sides of the home on Faithway Drive have been evacuated.
"We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn't see anything compatible with life," Damico said. "The entire house is on the sinkhole." From the outside, there were no cracks or visible signs of damage to the home. The front door was open, but taped off.
One official said he was surprised the house was still standing. The home has been condemned by code enforcement.
Crews are expected to begin the process of demolishing the home on Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
