video transcript

A 36-year old Florida man was feared dead Friday after a sinkhole suddenly swallowed up the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home the night before. Rescuers responded to an emergency call late Thursday night and found the man's brother trying unsuccessfully to rescue him. Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers. "They rushed in, all they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole. Essentially the floor of that room had opened up. They could hear the nephew in the hole, but they could not see him." A real-life nightmare, but Rogers says sinkholes are common in Florida. "Florida essentially sits on a system of caverns that are filled with water to some degree and as that water moves up and down it erodes those caverns and from time to time they collapse, so the question really is what's down there and how much earth is it going to take to fill it." Four other adults and a child managed to escape from the house. Officials have made a wide safety perimeter around the house to prevent further incidents.