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ire razed on Thursday afternoon parts of the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel, Resort and Spa, the iconic hotel that marks the island’s serious foray to global tourism market. The fire did not touch the hotel’s main facilities nor placed any guest in danger. No fatalities were reported.

The fire was first detected at 2:15 p.m. local time at the archive storage facility in the western section of the compound. The fire then slithered into the other rooms, including Laksmana, Trijata, Wibisana, and the health clinic.

The hotel’s fire brigade team assisted by at least six fire engines from the Denpasar Fire Brigade quickly sealed the area, blocked the spread of the fire before totally extinguished the raging flame. It took them 45 minutes before declaring the fire had been put off.

By that time the fire had damaged six rooms.

“Nobody was injured in the fire and certainly there is no fatality,” the hotel’s PR manager Dewi Aprianti stated, adding that the emergency system and first responders had performed efficiently in preventing the fire from inflicting bigger damages.

“The fire did not cause any panic because it took place quite far from the main building,” she said.

Aprianti promised that the hotel’s patrons will not experience any glitch in the level of services following the fire.

“The fire did not and will not affect the overall running and services of the hotel,” she stressed.

On that fateful day the hotel’s occupancy rate was 99 percent. A large number of the patrons were not
on the premises when the fire broke out.

“Most of our guests have already left the hotel for leisure excursion to tourism attractions across the island when the fire started,” she said.

The hotel was constructed in 1963 by the order of then President Sukarno with war compensation money provided by the Japanese government.

It turned into the tallest building in the island. It still is and its image, a tall hotel amid a lush white sandy beach of Sanur, became one of the most iconic images of Bali.

The construction of the hotel and three years later the expansion and designation of Ngurah Rai as international airport marked the island’s decisive step to enter the global tourism market.

— JP/Wasti Atmodjo