One fateful moment recalled

By JO-MARIE BROWN

Hundreds of Bali holidaymakers were relaxing and enjoying the friendly, easy-going atmosphere of the Sari Club and Paddys Irish bar at Kuta Beach.

Teenagers giggled as they danced, honeymooners laughed together and boisterous rugby players drank at the bar.

Then, as an Eminem song began to belt out through the Sari Club's speakers, tourists from about two dozen countries found themselves surrounded by flames and fighting for their lives. Here are some of their stories:

* Richard Keane, from Wellington, had been in Paddys bar with three friends for 90 minutes when he was knocked off his feet.

As he scrambled for the exit, a second blast threw him to the ground again.

"After the blast it was all black. Everything was charred, burning. There was singed hair and skin. There was just a lot of screaming and panic."

Despite his cuts and a calf injury, Mr Keane re-entered the bar to rescue others and found a circle of bodies.

"There was a wall at Paddy's, made of really thick glass. I think a lot of glass just exploded inwards and went right through a few people."

* Australian Ashley Airlie was celebrating her 15th birthday with five other teenage girls and their mothers. After dinner at a Kuta Beach restaurant, the girls wanted to go dancing so they could say they'd been to a nightclub in Bali.

Inside the Sari Club, the teenagers began dancing close to the speakers.

"I waved at Mum on the other side of the room," Ashley told the Sydney Morning Herald. "She was laughing, dancing ... that was the last time I saw her."

Ashley recalls being thrown to the floor and the room going dark as the roof collapsed on top of her.

"There were people lying everywhere and people climbing over my head trying to get out."

Four of the girls escaped by jumping from the Sari's burning roof. The other two girls and all six mothers are still missing.

* David Hodder from the Forbes Rugby Club in New South Wales was in the Sari Club and remembers hearing a smaller explosion like a firecracker before he was knocked to the ground by a second blast.

"When I came to, the roof was down, with flames flying out of it and people running over me."

Mr Hodder and several of his teammates scaled a 3m wall to escape the inferno that had erupted.

* Lee Panther, from Kaitaia, was among a group of five couples who arrived at the Sari Club about 10pm. All the women had been given flyers the day before with a picture of a firecracker and the slogan "explosive party at the Sari Club".

Just after 11pm the group moved away from the front of the club and began dancing together by the bar.

They heard a crackle then a boom which knocked them over.

Ms Panther remembers falling debris as the building collapsed around her. She then jumped off the rooftop to escape the blaze that engulfed the club.

* Rachael and John Stewart were also in the Kaitaia group. John Stewart pushed his 30-year-old wife up a fire escape after the blast hit and she became separated from the other couples.

"I was standing out on the street and people were yelling at me to move," she said.

"But I couldn't move, I couldn't talk. I just thought they were all dead."

Two hours later she found her way back to her hotel and was reunited with her husband. John Stewart said his watch stopped at 11:10pm when the blast hit, and he could think only about his wife's safety. "I didn't want to lose her."

* New Zealand-born lawyer Andrew Crook works in Singapore and was in Bali for a rugby tournament. He was standing outside the Sari Club when the bomb detonated.

The 26-year-old said the blast tore the clothes and shoes from his body. He stumbled naked away from the scene, cutting his feet on broken glass.

Partly deaf and with cracked ribs and burns to his arms and face, Mr Crook was pulled aboard a truck where he leaned against an Indonesian man and struggled "not to pass out or go into shock".

* Steven Febey from the Melbourne AFL club was walking down the street with his team-mates and was 10m from the Sari Club when the first bomb exploded.

"My ears are still ringing," he said.

"It just caused chaos once the second explosion went off.

"People going everywhere, just disoriented, and certainly the scene wasn't pretty in terms of people dead on the ground."

* Tom Waite, from Taranaki, was one of the lucky ones. With a friend, Billy Quickfall, Mr Waite had tried to get into Paddys early on Saturday night. But the pair left because the bar was full.

He reflected on his good fortune when he learned that a restaurant across the street had also been destroyed.

"All the floors collapsed. They don't know how many people are under there."

* Peter Chworowsky, from Wisconsin in the United States, played three games of rugby in a tournament on Saturday and went to the Sari Club at 10pm.

The 43-year-old was drinking with teammates when he found himself on his back, being trampled on.

"I remember thinking this is what war is like."

Screams filled the air and the main entrance was blocked by smoke and flames.

Mr Chworowsky escaped through a hole blasted in the wall, but at least five of the 12 rugby players he was with did not make it out.

* Scott Murphy, 29, from Brisbane, was in a group of rugby players who found themselves covered in concrete and pieces of the Sari Club's roof after the explosion.

"It was pitch black and you could see the glow of the fire illuminating the room."

Bali messages and latest information on New Zealanders
New Zealand travellers in Bali, and their families around the world, can exchange news via our Bali Messages page. The page also contains lists of New Zealanders in Bali and their condition.

Foreign Affairs advice to New Zealanders

* Travellers should defer travel to Bali

* NZers in Bali should keep a low profile and remain calm

* Foreign Affairs Hotline: 0800 432 111

Feature: Bali bomb blast

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