PALM HARBOR - A sinkhole about 3 feet deep and 12 feet wide opened next to a home in the Deep Spring neighborhood Tuesday.
The hole, next to the home of retirees Michael and Mary Byrne, formed as workers were getting ready to inject grout beneath their house to stabilize the ground.
The couple have lived at 855 Edgehill Drive for about a decade and wanted their property checked out and shored up because other homes in the neighborhood have had settling problems, according to their son.
"They were being proactive," said the son, 36-year-old Kevin Byrne of Palm Harbor. He said his parents were upset and did not want to talk to a reporter Tuesday evening.
Workers with L.R.E. Ground Services Inc. of Brooksville had been at the house Thursday, Friday and Tuesday sinking 17 pipes into the ground around the house so they could inject grout, a mixture of cement, sand, fly ash and water, beneath the structure. The pipes go down about 50 feet, said L.R.E. Ground Services field director Shawn Willis.
They were putting a pipe next to the garage when the ground there dropped at about 4:40 p.m.
As the earth shifted, the wire supplying the house with electricity pulled away from the meter, starting a small fire.
Workers put out the fire, but Palm Harbor Fire Rescue responded to secure the area around the home.
Tuesday evening, workers filled the hole with sand as the Byrnes arranged to spend the night elsewhere.
Plans to inject the grout under the home were expected to go ahead today.
