Unable to rescue a man devoured by a giant sinkhole, workers started demolishing his Florida home Sunday -- three days after the ground under his bedroom opened up and swallowed him.

Crowds watched as a backhoe plunged its bucket into the home's blue walls, leaving the wreckage of wood beams and cinder blocks where rooms once stood.

Some snapped photos with cell phone cameras, said John Gauntt, a reporter for CNN affiliate Bay News 9. Others turned toward the ground with tears in their eyes.

Demolition of the house lasted for about three hours on Sunday and was expected to continue on Monday morning, Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill told reporters.

It was a delicate process, officials said, as a county employee skillfully maneuvered a massive piece of construction equipment to scoop up the family's valuables and carry them to safety.

The items salvaged included a Bible, military awards and an American flag that hung near the house's front door.

One woman wept as an official handed her a framed family portrait. The demolition crew worked for only a few hours on Sunday to give the family time to sift through their belongings, Merrill said.

But authorities said they couldn't recover Jeff Bush's body from the massive hole that opened up under his bedroom. The sinkhole -- about 20 feet wide and 50 to 60 feet deep -- was still expanding, they said, and the suburban Tampa house could collapse at any time.

Authorities made the heartbreaking decision to stop the search for Bush after the odds against his survival became abundantly clear.

"We just have not been able to locate Mr. Bush, and so for that reason, the rescue effort is being discontinued," Merrill told reporters Saturday evening. "At this point, it's really not possible to recover the body."

The Bush family's nightmare began Thursday night, just as everyone was about to go to sleep.

A deafening noise shattered the peace in the blue, one-story home in the suburb of Seffner.

Then, Jeremy Bush said he heard his brother, Jeff, scream.

"I ran toward my brother's bedroom," he told CNN's "AC360."

"Everything was gone. My brother's bed, my brother's dresser, my brother's TV. My brother was gone."

Jeremy Bush jumped in the hole and frantically shoveled away rubble. But as the house's floor collapsed, a sheriff's deputy pulled him to safety, while his brother remained trapped below.

"I couldn't get him out," Jeremy Bush said, weeping. "I tried so hard. I tried everything I could."

Jeremy Bush and four others, including a 2-year-old child, were uninjured.

After officials called off the search for his brother's body Saturday, Jeremy Bush told Bay News 9 the family was devastated.

"It's not just I lost my brother. There are so many memories in this house," he told the CNN affiliate. "My wife and her brother and the whole family. ... Every holiday, we gathered at this house. Her grandmother passed away. All the stuff to remember her by is in this house, and we're losing it all. You can't replace that. You can't replace a life being gone."