(ABC News)--The brother of the Florida man pulled to his presumed death into a sinkhole while he slept said today that he believes rescuers could have "tried harder" to save his brother.
"I tried my hardest to get you out, brother," a tearful Jeremy Bush said
at a news conference today. "I think I'm the only one that really tried
to get you out. They said the ground was too unstable to do anything,
but they got all this heavy equipment on there, pulling stuff out and
everyone's cheering for everything that's coming out of the house. I've
had enough of the cheering."
Wrecking crews have been working non-stop to turn the Florida home that
sits over the sinkhole to rubble, as the family grieved for victim Jeff
Bush, 37, whose body is unlikely to ever be recovered from the gaping
hole that suddenly opened on Thursday night.
Jeremy Bush had to be rescued by a first responder after he jumped into
the hole in an attempt to rescue his brother when the home's concrete
floor collapsed, but said he couldn't find him.
"Detectives have consulted with the Hillsborough County Medical
Examiner's Office and have concluded that based on all data of the
incident collected thus far including depth of the sinkhole as well as
composition of the soil and water; there is no environmental conditions
inside the sinkhole that could sustain human life and along with the
opinion of Medical Examiner's Office, Jeffery Bush is presumed
deceased," the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said in a statement
today.
Rescuers "halted all recovery efforts" on Saturday when the site became
too unstable. The sinkhole, which authorities estimated now measures 30
feet across and up to 100 feet deep, will become the final resting place
for Jeff Bush.
"I feel that they could've tried harder to try to get my brother out of
there," Bush said, choking up. "That was my brother. My mom and dad are
going through so much right now."
He said his parents are "going through hell" and that his mother wakes up every hour crying over her lost son.
"Let's try and get my brother out," Bush said. "That's what I want."
The brother did express his gratitude to the first responders. "I want
to thank everybody. God bless everybody for what they have done and what
you all are doing for us. I thank everybody—the reporters, the
firefighters, everybody that's been here, doing what they're doing."
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue did not immediately respond to request
for comment today. When asked about Bush's comments, Hillsborough
County spokesman Willie Puz would only say, "We're doing all we can to
ensure the safety and security of everybody in this response effort."
Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrell said on Sunday that the
demolition process would be slow and methodical, with crews attempting
to bring as much of the structure forward to the street as possible so
the grieving family could retrieve their valuables. Stability has been a
constant worry.
"We feel we have done everything we can," Merrell said. "At this point, it's not possible to recover the body."
Two homes next door to Bush's residence were evacuated Saturday after
authorities feared the structures had been compromised by the growing
sinkhole.
Copyright 2013 by ABC News
