Skeleton construction crew guards Calgary sinkhole

A Calgary family is having some early Halloween fun with a sizeable sinkhole that was discovered outsidetheir northwest Calgary home last Friday.

Jordan Piraux said she and her family were enjoying a quiet evening last Friday when they heard sirens right outside their Evanston home.

• 30-metre sink 'depression' strands vehicles in CrowfootLRTparking lot

When they walked outside they were shocked to see a massive sinkhole had appeared at the end of their driveway.

"We didn't know how it started or when it happened," she said. "It's actually five feet wide by almost five feet deep."

But, the Piraux family known for their over-the-top Halloween decorations aren't ones to dwell on the negative, and had a more humorous response in mind.

The family set up a skeleton crew of threein and around the sinkhole's barriers and dressed them as construction workers with hard hats and work vests.

"We set this guy up, having him leaning on this sort of sweeping up the mess, and thenwe have our guy over there who's kinda stopping trafficwe have his hand out and then we have the one in the hole, which we thought was kind of funny," she said.

The family said theydidn't noticethe ground sinking or anything leading up

TimPiraux saidhe posted a photo of their bony friends to his Instagram page called Extreme Coffee Freakas a joke, tagging the city and Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

"It started off with one skeleton saying we've been waiting so long that we've got things crawling out of the hole now," he said. "And then we took it a little farther saying now the city is killing their men, working them to death now as we're still waiting for the hole to be fixed."

The Pirauxs said they've been having fun with the situation and so have their neighbours.

"They were driving by, they were laughing. We've had people drive by and then take a second look, it was kind of funny," she said. "And then we've had a lot of kids come out and kinda give high fives to the skeletons, so it's been a great response from the community."

Despite their good-natured demeanour, the Pirauxfamily saidthey would like to have the hole fixed sooner rather than later, so their skeletons can rest up for their October debut.

Corey Colbran, manager of waste water and storm water collection for the city, said his crews have conducted multiple tests on the site and concluded there are no water leaks or main breaks that caused the hole to form.

And, with the hole having sat open in front of the Piraux's driveway for nearly a week without anyone informing the family of when it would be fixed or what they learned, he admits the city could have done a better job of communicating with them.

"On the Friday before a long weekend we probably ran into some issues there," he said. "In terms of communication we probably could have done a better job of communicating with the home owners.

A spokesperson for the city's roads departmentsaida natural event removed material from under the roadway causing it to collapse and they've now beengiven the green light to fill the hole but couldn't say when that would happen.

• MORE CALGARY NEWS|Maybe don't location-tag that Instagram, says Parks Canada
• MORE CALGARY NEWS|Calgary woman reunited with long-lost bike 7 years after it was stolen
• Read more articles byCBC Calgary, like us onFacebookfor updates and subscribe to ourCBC Calgary newsletterfor the day's news at a glance.