Giant sinkhole from old mine threatens to swallow NJ home

A New Jersey homeowner said Sunday a giant sinkhole that opened in the front of his home is getting bigger.

Andrew Kauff said the sinkhole from an old mine formed Dec. 30 and now threatens to swallow his home in the Morris County town of Mine Hill.

“As it is raining today, the mine shaft hole has become much bigger,” Kauff said Sunday on a GoFundMe page created to help him raise funds to fill the sinkhole. “As it gets closer to the house I hope the area that has solid earth will remain intact.”

Kauff was at work Dec. 30 when the sinkhole showed up a few feet from his doorstep. It grew in size the next day after he was awakened by a loud thud.

The sinkhole is about 20 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

“Everyone is still [on] pins and needles,” Kauff told CBSNew York last week. “They’re afraid that the house will fall in.”

Engineers have assured Kauff that won’t happen, the station reported.

Mine Hill Mayor Sam Morris told the Parsippany Daily Record the sinkhole formed at the entrance of an old ore mine, one of several in the town dating back to the late 1800s.

The town surrounded the sinkhole with a fence.

One contractor told Kauff it would cost $10,000 to fill it with dirt and boulders.

Another offered to do the job for half that amount, he told the paper.

A friend of Kauff’s set up the GoFundMe page.

Kauff urged the state to do something.

“What a helpless feeling and high stress levels are now at our home,” Kauff said.