There are more than one underlying words in Hebrew or Greek that are interpreted in English as "Hell" in the Bible. It is an interesting study which I did a long time ago. But basically you have to look at the word in the original language to see more clearly what "hell" in English is referring to. The Hell you referred to here is originally "Gehenna" in Greek. The other Greek word is "Hades" which often is simply translated as "the grave."
Here's is a website that lays out Edward Fudge's position on Hell:
We begin with conditionalism, which is sometimes referred to as annihilationism. Conditionalists begin with the premise that only God is inherently immortal. For humans, immortality is God's conditional gift, bestowed at the resurrection but only to the redeemed. Those who reject God's grace throughout life do not live forever. When John 3:16 says the options are eternal life or perish, conditionalists say that means just what it seems to say.
According to conditionalism, at the end of the world, the good and bad alike are raised to face judgment. The righteous enjoy eternal life with God; the lost are sentenced to hell. But God does not keep billions of them alive forever to torment them without end. Instead, those in hell suffer such precise pains as divine justice may require, in a destructive process that ends in extinction. This is the second death, the wages of sin. Eternal punishment is eternal destruction, eternal capital punishment.
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/ask-a-conditionalist-response