A man is missing after a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house in Seffner, a region just northeast of Tampa. The saga started Thursday night around 11.
There's been no contact with the man since the initial collapse. Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.The house is a concrete block home that experts say shows no outward signs of a sinkhole. There are no visible cracks in the foundation exterior.
But inside – the family heard a loud sound – similar to a car crash –from the back bedroom. Chief Ron Rogers with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue describes the scene the family found when they reached the bedroom.
"All they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole. Essentially the floor of that room had opened up. They could hear the nephew in the hole. But they could not see him. His brother jumped in to try and extricate him out."
But then he had to be rescued. Hillsborough Deputy Douglas Duvall reached in and pulled the second brother out just as the sinkhole was collapsing.