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Sinking house traps woman

Her cousin in Holiday, the homeowner, finds the Tarpon resident behind stuck doors.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published November 18, 2006

TARPON SPRINGS - Terrified and frantic, a 58-year-old disabled woman called a relative Friday morning to complain that she was trapped inside her home.

"I can't get any of the doors open! I can't get any of the doors open!" the woman told her cousin Melissa Ferguson of Holiday.

The call came at 7:30 a.m. Twenty minutes later, when Ferguson arrived at the house, she found that all of the doors were stuck.

"She pushed, and I pulled on it," Ferguson said later. "We were able to get the door open that way."

Ferguson was able to rescue her cousin without injury, but the older woman panicked because she forgot her medicine. So Ferguson went back inside.

"The walls inside were all cracking on the top and bottom, plaster falling off the walls," she said. "I grabbed her medicine, her mother's Bible and a photo album."

Then she called for help.

Police and city officials later confirmed that the house at 108 N Ring Ave., which Ferguson owns, appeared to be sinking.

Ferguson ventured back inside with firefighters a half hour later to retrieve some clothes.

"By then, the living room floor looked like a playground slide," she said.

A visual inspection by city engineers, building inspectors and firefighters showed no indication that the problem is affecting nearby homes, said Judy Staley, a city spokeswoman. It will take "additional subsurface investigation" to confirm whether the cause of the structural collapse is a sinkhole, she said.

City officials cordoned off the house and disconnected the gas, power and water lines to preempt systemic disruptions. They will continue to monitor the situation, Staley said.

"There's loud pops," Ferguson said, standing in front of the house Friday afternoon. "You can see buckles on the roof, bowing in spots."

From the outside, the damage appeared subtle, but she said it was nothing compared with the devastation inside.

"It's dangerous to go in," she said. "It's very scary."

Ferguson said that 30 years ago, a sinkhole swallowed up a big oak tree in the front yard, but the house escaped major damage.

There had been no signs of sinkage since, she said, until Friday morning.

[Last modified November 17, 2006, 22:53:36]