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If they could see an end to the situation, he said, they might manWhat
Battles saw as he peered down the basement steps chilled him to the bone.
“I saw the chimney collapse onto the floor, and the floor just disappeared. It turned into a big hole. I didn't know what happened or where it went.
“I just didn’t know what to think,” he continued. “It was like a supernatural feeling, standing there and watching the floor disappear. But I didn’t stand around to watch; I got out."
Bartles said he ran to a neighbor’s house, where he did the only thing he could think of—dial 911.
“I told them my basement had disappeared,” he said. “He (the dispatcher) didn’t understand. I think he thought one of the basement walls had collapsed, and that’s what they came out prepared to deal with.”
Within hours, Don McDanel, the Clarke County building inspector, was on the scene. McDanel saw nothing unusual as he approached the house, but when he opened the basement door, he found what he termed “a void space” about 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide.
He saw no trace of the furnace or chimney, but he did claim to have seen a tunnel extending off to one side of the hole.
Calling it “too dangerous to play age better. As it is, their property is useless — they can’t fill the hole or move the house —and it’s entirely possible they will never recoup their losses through insurance.
Bartles submitted his claim immeditately after the hole opened. His homeowners’ insurance is with United States Fidelity and Guaranty; his agent is Doug Moler in Berryville.
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