Residents in a Dunmore neighborhood were briefly evacuated Sunday afternoon after a sinkhole opened up in the borough.
Crews responded to 1402 College Ave. around 3:25 p.m. after a caller reported an “80-foot deep” sinkhole opened up in his backyard, according to an emergency dispatch.
Members of the Dunmore Fire Department and state Department of Environmental Protection along with its Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation division were on the scene Sunday, said Patti Monahan, a regional communications manager for the DEP’s Northeast Regional Office. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency also reached out to the DEP, Monahan said.
Residents from three properties on College Avenue (1400, 1402 and 1404) and 2216 Jefferson Ave. were evacuated Sunday around 3:36 p.m., according to a emergency dispatch. They were cleared to return to their homes around 4:09 p.m.
“They’re all safe and everything is fine,” Monahan said.
Dunmore Fire Department personnel reported the sinkhole was 12 to 14 feet in diameter and 40 feet deep, Monahan said. Officials with the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation determined the problem is mine related and will continue to investigate the cause and determine how to backfill the area, she said.
The Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation is responsible for resolving problems such as mine fires, mine subsidence, dangerous highwalls, open shafts and portals, mining-impacted water supplies and other hazards which resulted from past coal mining (pre-1977) practices, according to a post on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania website.
Efforts to reach Dunmore Borough Manager Greg Wolff on Monday were unsuccessful.