A teenager has been taken to hospital after a fire tore through a popular beachfront restaurant in Bali, with witnesses claiming birthday balloons exploded moments before the venue was engulfed in flames. The blaze broke out at Chez Gado Gado restaurant in Seminyak at around 7.30pm on Sunday, according to reports. Dramatic footage showed flames spreading through the restaurant and setting its thatched roof alight as diners fled from the building. Indonesian authorities confirmed that a boy was taken to hospital suffering from burns.
Birthday celebration turns to chaos
Australian tourist Tara Borelli, 30, from Sydney, said she was at the restaurant celebrating her cousin’s 51st birthday when the fire broke out. She claimed another table was celebrating a 70th birthday and had two balloons beside a birthday cake. According to her account, a waitress went to light a candle and the flame came too close to one of the balloons. “It popped then exploded. We felt the heat from the pop,” she said. The source report states the silver balloons had been filled with flammable gas, although the precise cause of the fire should be treated as subject to official investigation.
Families flee towards beach
Witnesses described people grabbing children and rushing from the restaurant as flames spread rapidly through the building. Borelli said she grabbed her seven-year-old daughter and 12-year-old cousin and ran towards the beach and water. She said the straw roof caught fire almost immediately and that within minutes the restaurant was engulfed. Another diner described the incident as “absolutely terrifying”, claiming the restaurant was packed when the fire broke out and that those inside had only seconds to escape. Images taken afterwards showed Chez Gado Gado extensively damaged, with much of the beachfront venue reduced to a charred shell. The circumstances surrounding the blaze, including claims about the balloons, have not been independently verified in the supplied report and remain subject to investigation.
Originally published by UKNIP.
