Seminyak fire: Aussie tourists recall terrifying moment they fled for their lives from burning holiday villas in Bali

A Melbourne woman has told how she and her partner made a daring last-minute escape from the inferno that engulfed holiday villas in Bali while another Aussie sleeping in the same resort has her friends to thank for saving her life.

The terrifying blaze was reported at around 10.30pm on Thursday night in Seminyak, an area popular with Aussies. 

Alana Capo told Nine News that she and her partner were confronted by the life-threatening scene of hellish flames tearing through villa next door to theirs.

'The exit to go out to the main street was in between the villas, so it was either run through the fire or find another way out,' she said.

Flames were jumping across the thatched roofs of the villas making the situation more desperate by the second.

However, keeping cool heads the intrepid pair managed to find some respite by climbing through a small gap onto a shed roof overlooking a rice paddy.

'We were waving our phones, screaming help, help, help,' Ms Capo said.

'These locals just came and basically, we jumped off the roof, four or five metres, and they caught us.'

Another Australian, Shirley Venter, said she owes her life to friends who came back to the villa to save her as she slept blissfully unaware of the peril.

'I was sleeping, I didn't even know it was happening,' she told Nine.

'They (staff) were going to leave me there.'

Venter returned to the hotel on Friday to salvage possessions.

Perth tourist Rod Blitvich said hotel staff did their best to douse the flames by hosing down one roof.  

'We saw them hose out a fire on a thatched roof,' he said.

Kuta police spokesman Anggi Wahyu Romadhoni said 19 of the complex's 20 buildings were destroyed but there were no reported casualties.

Earlier Western Australian man Bailey, who was staying in one of the villas, told Perth radio station 6PR he and his friends had lost nearly everything in the blaze.

'We were out for dinner and on our way back we could see flames in the distance. As we were getting close we realised our villa was on fire,' he said on Friday.

'I lost everything apart from my passport and cash, most of us did. A couple of them lost passports and a couple have (lost) everything.'

Bailey said he and his mates are going to go to the Australian consulate to try to 'get some new passports'. 

'And then we're going to have to find some new accommodation somewhere.'

He said that reports of people stealing items from the compound as the fire raged were probably not true.

'They were wheeling safes and mattresses out of the place. I don't know that they were being stolen. 

'They were just being taken out of there so that nothing got damaged,' he told Millsy and Karl on 6PR.