A Florida man, Jeffrey Bush, disappeared into a six metre deep sinkhole, which swallowed his bedroom over the weekend. Bush has been presumed dead after rescuers were unable to make contact with the man. And the search has been postponed until rescuers are able to evaluate the situation of the ground under Bush’s house.

The house is currently very unstable as parts of it collapsed into the ground while rescuers were inside. Rescuers could only see a part of Bush’s mattress sticking out from the hole. Fire Chief, Ron Rogers said, “essentially the floor of that room had opened up.”

Florida essentially sits on a system of caverns, water erosion in the caverns causes them to collapse and sinkholes to form on the surface.

The sinkhole is reportedly nine metres wide and six metres deep. Officials have, however, cleared a 30 metre safety zone around the sinkhole fearing it may grow. Residents in the surrounding areas of the sinkhole have been evacuated.

Reports suggest that sinkholes are not a new phenomenon, with 15 000 reportedly existing in the Florida area. Most sinkholes occur over a period of time but some can form quite quickly while taking lives with it. What is even scarier is that people can create sinkholes when drilling for construction sites and agricultural irrigation.

Florida has three sinkhole fatalities on record.

[Source: BBC News, Enstarz, Newser]