Canberra firefighters rushed to a shop in the capital last week after reports of a gas leak – only to find that the mystery smell was in fact a durian fruit.
Firefighters combed a shopping centre in Dickson for the source – with ACT’s Emergency Services Agency issuing a ‘hazardous materials’ warning for people – before a tenant came forward to identify the culprit.
“The fruit gives off a very pungent smell and can waft some distance,” the ACT’s Fire and Rescue department said in a statement.
“After an hour on scene, as firefighters were searching for the source, the owners of a tenancy above the shops advised of the potential source of the incident. After a short investigation, crews confirmed this was the origin of the incident. Crews have now departed.”
Known as the ‘King of Fruits’, durian is a Malaysian fruit with a spiky skin and custard-like fruit that is very popular in south-east Asia. However, it also has a very pungent odor that has seen it banned from public hospitals and (wisely) public transport.
It’s not the first durian-related incident for Canberra – in 2019, a University of Canberra library was evacuated after the smell of gas was reported, only for it to turn out to be coming from the fruit.
RMIT campus in Melbourne’s CBD also had to be evacuated in 2018 after a similar incident.
No details on whether the durian was taken into ‘custardy’.
