Things were out of odor at a university library in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday afternoon, with fears of a gas leak.
But the smell that aroused suspicions was no leaky pipe. It was a notoriously stinky fruit.
Around 500 students and staffers were evacuated from the RMIT University library so that 40 firefighters, including masked crews, could investigate the source of the smell, according to the Herald Sun. The culprit was a durian left rotting in a cupboard, Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade said in a release.
This sort of fruit-driven flight would surprise few who have come in contact with the durian, a native of Southeast Asia with an odor that has been compared to “turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock,” “hot poop garbage” and “gasoline.”
Although aficionados relish durians for their creamy, sweet interior, the fruits are so polarizing that they’re banned from Singapore’s subway system and many hotels around Asia, according to Time.
Once authorities knew there was no danger, the building was reopened. However, Victoria state’s Environment Protection Authority still had the task of removing the foul-smelling fruit from the premises, according to The Age.