SEFFNER, Fla. — A sinkhole in Seffner that killed a man 10 years ago and reopened twice in the years since — most recently earlier this month — has now been refilled.
Crews began working on the refilling process on Monday, and just a day later, the job was completed.
A picture shows the sinkhole, in which the area surrounding it has been fenced, refilled and flattened out at ground level.
In 2013, the same sinkhole opened up under a house, killing Jeffrey Busch. Three homes had to be condemned and demolished. The hole was filled and the area was fenced off. But in 2015, it opened again.
"Nobody wants to repeat [what happened]. That's not the ideal solution," Jon-Paul Lavandeira with Hillsborough County Code Enforcement said. "But if it does come, let it come to where we can control things and keep everyone safe and have a plan of attack to address it."
Fortunately, the sinkhole seems to be stable.
County workers say even though it took a couple of days to get things in order and find a qualified contractor, there's no indication any of the surrounding houses are in danger.
They hope that the hole will not reopen again, but if it does, they say this is what was designed to happen — a predictable, manageable opening that they can keep fenced off for public safety. And then refill, again.
10 Tampa Bay's Eric Glasser contributed to this report.