Exclusive | Pungent gasoline odor has plagued South Brooklyn for 9 weeks but source is still a mystery

South Brooklyn is fuming.Sheepshead Bay has reeked of gasoline fumes for weeks — but no one has any idea where the headache-inducing stink is coming from.Pockets of the nabe have been living under a constant cloud of the unmistakable petroleum smell since at least late August, leaving residents frustrated with the lack of action to diffuse the smell.“I just want to be able to breathe without breathing in gasoline.You can’t even say, ‘I’m going out to get fresh air!'” fumed Helene Leone, who has lived on East 19th Street since 1959.“I get headaches.

My eyes water.I wonder if I should be concerned about that, if I should be running to the doctor.”Residents pointed to that block off Voorhees Avenue as the worst, and potentially where the plague first identified itself.The stench seemingly wafts from manhole covers and sewer catch basins, leading neighbors to initially question if there was a gas tank leak from the nearby gas station.But then similar complaints started popping up on the other side of Sheepshead Bay — and even as far as Coney Island and across the water in Manhattan Beach.One neighbor, Diana, created a self-reporting map of the smell to hopefully aid officials in identifying a pattern of what she called a “suffocating” stench.“At what point is it considered an emergency?” Diana said.“I’m really nervous about everything just combusting at some point.”The smell is constant, rain or shine, but the intensity of the stench is dependent on how strong the winds are on a given day, residents say.“I’m concerned for the dogs.

I’m concerned for the kids.This is not something that they need to be exposed to.

This is vapor that is not healthy.End of story,” said Tzipporah Simon, 64.“If you stand here long enough, your throat will start to burn.

Your eyes will start.It’s impossible to stand in one place.

You just can’t.The fact that nobody’s really, at least to my estimation, doing their due diligence to really fin...