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.”
Photo: AFP
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 said.
It was left to library staff to reveal the source of the odor: a durian.
Once called the “king of fruits” by 19th-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, the durian is adored for its at once sweet and savory flavor and enjoys a cultish popularity in China.
However, its extremely pungent — often reviled — odor means the fruit is often banned from hotels and public transport across Asia.
The rogue durian was left near an air vent on the library’s second level and eventually removed in a sealed bag, a library staff said.
“We are open,” a post on the university library’s Facebook page stated. “The lingering gas-like smell in the building is completely safe — someone left a durian fruit in one of our bins! Very sneaky.”
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