Australian library evacuated after the smell of durian was mistaken for a gas leak
- The rogue durian, according to library staff, was left near an air vent on the library’s second level and eventually removed in a sealed bag
A piece of fruit prompted the evacuation of an Australian university library last week.
On Friday afternoon fire and rescue teams in the Australian Capital Territory responded to calls of “a strong smell of gas” inside the University of Canberra library.
The library was evacuated, and the territory’s emergency services released a statement saying hazardous materials crews were searching the building and conducting “atmospheric monitoring”.
Someone left a durian fruit in one of our bins! Very sneaky
Within an hour, the source of the stench had been discovered.
“Firefighters have completed a search of the building and located the source of the smell,” was the tactful statement from the emergency services department. “The library is now being reoccupied and the building has been handed back to University of Canberra staff.”
It was left to the library staff to reveal the source of the odour: a durian.
Once called the “king of fruits” by 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, the Malaysian durian is adored for its at once sweet and savoury flavour and enjoys a cultish popularity in China. But its extremely pungent – often reviled – odour means the fruit is often banned from hotels and public transport across Asia.