Seffner Sinkhole Poses No Threat to Nearby Homes, Officials Say

A woman out walking her dog on Seffner’s Faithway Drive had quite the shock Wednesday morning as she passed the conservation lot where a home once sat.

“She heard a loud boom,” county spokeswoman Michelle VanDyke explained.

That 9 a.m. boom signaled a reopening of the sinkhole at 240 Faithway Drive. That same hole, just over two years ago, opened for the first time, swallowing Jeffrey Bush, 36, in the process.

The woman contacted the county, VanDkye said, and it was quickly determined that it was the very same sinkhole. This time the hole opened up approximately 17 feet across with an estimated depth of 20 feet.

VanDyke said engineers were called out to the site to assess the depression. The recent cave-in occurred exactly as engineers who worked on the original remediation in 2013 designed it to should a reopening ever occur.

“(It was) engineered in such as way (as to) protect the other homes,” she said. Engineers say the hole is stable and “there’s no danger to any other homes.”

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VanDyke said an action plan to fill in the sinkhole is already under way. Wednesday’s collapse, she said, may have been prompted by the area’s recent rains.

“We feel, no doubt, that the heavy rains contributed to that,” she said.

As of Thursday morning, a county contractor was already on the site beginning the process of filling in the hole once again.

The original cave-in occurred around 11 p.m. Feb. 28, 2013. Bush, 36, was asleep in bed when the ground opened up beneath his home and swallowed him, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said at the time.

“It’s a movie scene behind there,” said McKinnon. “That’s what it is.”

McKinnon said Bush’s mother was asleep in another room when she heard a loud crunching sound. When she rushed to her son’s room, she saw that the entire floor had caved in and her son was gone.

An extensive search was conducted for Bush, but his body was never recovered.

Photo courtesy of Hillsborough County