Brooklyn Heights Library evacuated Friday

January 8, 2016 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Brooklyn Heights Library was evacuated around noon on Friday. Photo by Mary Frost

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The Brooklyn Heights Library was evacuated around noon on Friday after library users smelled gas. The odor, which one man said smelled like rotten eggs, emanated from the basement.

Dozens of patrons, including the Downtown work crowd and nannies with small children, poured onto the chilly sidewalk in front of the building at 280 Cadman Plaza West.

Irving Demsky, the oldest librarian in the Brooklyn Public Library System at 85, helped library users evacuate the building.

“I don’t know anything, I just have the loudest voice,” he said.

Firefighters using a gas meter quickly located the source of the odor.

“It was methane gas from a sewer leak,” library supervisor Uldis Skrodelis told the Brooklyn Eagle.

After firefighters located the source, they quickly allowed patrons back into the building.

The City Council recently approved the sale of the library site to a developer, who plans to build a luxury tower there, with a replacement library on the first floor and basement level.