Seminyak Inferno!
Awoken by flames
It’s late at night in Seminyak.
I’m sleeping like a baby.
But somewhere in the distance there is a banging noise.
Annoying dream.
I snore on and then again – there it is, in my subconscious.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I’m very slowly coming back up to the surface of waking consciousness from my deep slumbers.
My wife is standing at the window, the banging is on our front door. She opens the curtains to reveal a strange deep orange glow outside.
Someone is banging on our door
Fire! Get out!
We escape the fire
I looked out the window to see the eerie orange glow. Only time to grab handbags, passports, phones and wallets. I’m pausing to lock the bedroom door when the well-intended Security Manager pulls me away and urgently makes me leave. 1 or 2 villas/houses behind us are on fire. The fire has spread to other buildings with thatched rooves. Smoke everywhere and a huge orange glow. Unfortunately, the wind is carrying embers which have ignited other buildings.
I am guessing some fireworks landed on a thatched roof to start the fire. At one stage I counted nine fire engines. Probably total of 4 to 6 houses/villas destroyed. Our villa had tiles not thatch.
We ended up on the street with scores of others, watching the calamity.
Fire engines with sirens screaming rocketing down the street.
A kind Aussie couple (Sylvia and Phil) who owned a nearby villa took us under their wing. We ended up sitting in a bar up the street with them, slowly realising that we weren’t going back to our accommodation.
By 1:00 am we had checked in to another hotel 200m up the street.
I was then able to get back to our villa (fortunately had my head-torch) and rescue half our things. The power was out and I slid around in the dark on the wet, grimy marble floors deciding what to carry back to our new accommodation.
At sunrise we ventured back to rescue the rest of our things. The place is covered in back soot and ash, but fortunately our villa did not burn (except for the pool umbrella). Several (perhaps even a dozen!) buildings behind us were destroyed along with 2 alongside us. All these were just metres from ours.
A close escape!
As far as we know (hopefully) no one hurt.
Massive fire engulfs Seminyak, Bali villas leaving Aussie tourists stranded without their passports
Be Prepared for Emergencies
- Make sure you have Travel Insurance and that you have an easily accessible copy.
- Your Travel Insurance needs to cover Hospital and Medical, Medical Repatriation, Luggage, Cameras & Phones, Cancelation etc
- Ensure the safety of you and your loved ones first. Loved ones are your priority. Belongings can be replaced.
- Your “grab and go” list in event of a sudden emergency – Passports, Credit Cards, Phones, Phone charger
- If you have time – medications, a change of clothes, torch or head-torch
- Make sure you have Travel Insurance
- Google translate on your phone might come in handy
- Keep your phone charged
- Have a copy of your Emergency Contacts – maybe digital AND on paper.
- Make sure you have Travel Insurance
When things go wrong overseas
Crisis or emergency overseas (smartraveller.gov.au)
