By Zach Hope, Karuni Rompies and Amilia Rosa
Singapore/Bali: A massive fire in the Bali tourist hub of Seminyak has destroyed a hotel complex housing holidaying Australians, some of whom are stranded with all or most of their belongings destroyed.
Images captured by tourists and locals late on Thursday show Villa Amasya, in the heart of Seminyak, fully engulfed by flames leaping into the sky.
Most of the 30 guests were Australians, villa staff told this masthead.
“I lost everything apart from my passport and cash,” Bailey, an Australian tourist, said on Perth’s 6PR radio.
“We were out for dinner, and on our way back we could see flames in the distance. As we got closer and closer, we could see our villa was on fire.” Others in the group had lost even their passports, he said.
Indonesian authorities said no one had been killed. A firefighter, however, suffered a badly broken leg.
Australians Sally Richardson (left), Alice Bowers (middle) and Lucy Ockert gathered what they could and fled.Credit: Amilia Rosa
Of the complex’s 20 buildings, 19 had been destroyed, according to Kuta police spokesman Anggi Wahyu Romadhoni. He said the cause was still being investigated.
Another Australian family was inside the hotel when they heard popping noises, which they assumed were fireworks.
“That’s when I looked outside and saw the flames,” said Sydney resident Lucy Ockert, who was in the same room as her cousin Alice Bowers waiting for a food delivery. They were in Bali to attend another cousin’s wedding.
“It was very scary. We heard people running and shouting,” Ockert said. “But the staff were very helpful. They were knocking and yelling – and they went back to check that everyone was okay and make sure that everyone got out. They were lovely, but they looked very panicked as well. We’re just thankful everyone is okay.”
The cousins woke up Bowers’ mum Sally in another room and gathered most of their belongings before fleeing to the street.
The fire destroyed almost an entire complex of Bali villas.
“We didn’t know how long we had to get our stuff, and it’s kind of you’d have to make a decision,” Bowers said.
Ockert added: “The fire, it just moved so fast. We thought we had more time.”
Locals said the fire began after 9.30pm on Thursday [11.30pm AEST] and fire crews arrived within about half an hour. The blaze was so fierce it took them close to six hours to extinguish.
Perth man Carlo Romeo was out for a walk with his wife and a friend when firetrucks began whizzing past them in the direction of the villa.
“I thought, ‘Gee, that’s got to be close’. So we took off [to the villa],” he said.
“All of a sudden, trucks, they’re pumping water in. We managed to get some of our stuff, but we weren’t given enough time so we had to get out.
“We’re on the bottom level and the fire started on the top, so we’re lucky, really, because our friend was upstairs sleeping and she didn’t know anything ... all she’s left with is her pyjamas.”
The area on Kayu Aya Road is tightly packed and busy with traffic, hampering the firefighters’ efforts, said I Wayan Arta, head of the fire and rescue unit at Badung.
“The road going toward the villas was small, perhaps only two to three metres wide,” he said. “It meant the fire trucks had to just stay on the road and couldn’t closer to the villas. We extended the hose to reach the fires.”
He said the windy conditions and thatched roofs of some villas caused the flames to spread quickly.
The fire is believed to have been discovered by a staff member in the roof of villa number 9 while performing a routine check on a water pump, according to police statements seen by this masthead. He attempted to use a fire extinguisher, but could not reach the flames. After the blaze spread to villa 12, he alerted the front office and villa manager, the report said.
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