Florida sinkhole house to be razed, slowly

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SEFFNER, Fla., March 3 (UPI) -- Tearing down the Florida home where a man was swallowed up by a sinkhole will be a delicate task due to the instability of the ground, officials said.

Attempts to find the body of Jeff Bush were called off Saturday because of the danger the sinkhole beneath the home in Seffner would further collapse.

"We just have not been able to locate Mr. Bush, and so for that reason the rescue effort is being discontinued," Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill told reporters Saturday night. "At this point, it's really not possible to recover the body."

Merrill said the home, which appears intact from the outside, would be pulled apart slowly starting Sunday to avoid another collapse. Although the geological phenomenon was fairly common in the Tampa area, the situation in Seffner involved a "very unusual sinkhole" -- deep, wide and extremely unstable."

CNN said a neighbor's home was red-tagged even though it had not been damaged. Residents were given 30 minutes Saturday to haul out whatever possessions they could and keep their distance in case the ground under their place gave way.