Tampa area man swallowed by sinkhole

BRANDON, Fla. — A large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near Tampa, trapping a 34-year-old man in the rubble.

The home collapsed late Thursday in a Brandon neighborhood. By early Friday, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials determined the home had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts.

Fire rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said Bracken Engineering officials determined the home’s bedroom is the center of the sinkhole, which measures about 100 feet across.

Listening devices and cameras were placed in the hole but there had been no contact with the missing man by early Friday.

Engineering officials will return later Friday morning with more sophisticated monitoring equipment to determine the actual diameter and depth of the sinkhole.

Damico said the man’s brother was trying to pull the man out of the sinkhole when Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies arrived. The first deputy on the scene pulled the brother from the still collapsing hole. She said the brother and the deputy were not injured.

Officials evacuated neighbors living on either side of the home.