Frank Morgan initially thought a plane had crashed nearby.
WARNING: This story contains graphic details that may be distressing to some readers.
The Australian Federal Police officer was in a hotel room in Bali on the night of October 12, 2002.
He was on the Indonesian island for some rest and recuperation from his duties as part of the Australian peacekeeping mission in East Timor.
Earlier that evening, Frank had been in the nearby Sari Club, enjoying a few post-dinner drinks with some AFP colleagues. Earlier that day he'd played a round of golf.
Suitably rested and relaxed, and facing an early flight the next day, Frank said his farewells and made his way back to the hotel just as the Saturday night crowd was building inside the popular nightclub.
Just after 11pm, the bombs went off
"My first thoughts were an aircraft had crash landed," he said.
"But the longer it went, the more I realised that something had happened close by. And that's when I started seeing the flames coming up out of the areas of the Sari Club."
So strong were the blasts that some of the windows in Frank's hotel, 400 metres away, shattered.
His first instinct was to rush to the scene, but he didn't get much further than the hotel foyer and forecourt, which were quickly filling with the wounded.
Frank spent some time there helping where he could. One woman was so badly burnt, he tried to offer some relief by wetting her down with hotel blankets, but she died in his arms.
Worried about his colleagues, Frank then made his way to what was left of the Sari Club to look for them. He found fellow officer, Tim Fisher, who was barely recognisable.
"Both of his eardrums had been blown out," he said.
"He was covered in blood. [He had] burns to his hands and injuries to his foot.
"It was a case of trying to look after him and then the collection of other people that were gathering around that were injured."
Frank commandeered a vehicle to take Tim, and as many other injured people he could squeeze in, to a nearby international hospital.
There he made a deal with one of the doctors
Look after Tim, and Frank would take a medical kit and start treating the bombing victims gathering out the front.
People were streaming in with injuries ranging from cuts and bruises, to much, much worse. As he worked through the patients, Frank came across Australian Karen Smith, who was lying on a bed with no apparent injuries.
On closer examination he found Karen had a gaping wound in the back of her head. Frank called out for a doctor.
"He came around and decided to put quite a few staples in the back of her head just to try to hold everything together," he said.
"It was pretty unpleasant for her. Wasn't a nice situation."
There was nothing pleasant about the situation Frank had found himself him.
Dealing with crises was all part of his job as an AFP officer
A little over a year earlier, Frank had been in Washington DC as part of then Prime Minister John Howard's security detail when the 9/11 terror attacks unfolded.
"I think the main thing is to stay calm," he said.
"Don't panic, don't show panic. Just keep everyone calm and relaxed.
"Because the moment people start getting upset, it just brings a new set of complexities to it. And knowing it will end eventually.
"It just can't go on forever. But it felt like it did."
As the seemingly endless night dragged on, Frank went about compiling a list of colleagues from the East Timor mission who were still missing. He also helped mobilise support from AFP headquarters in Australia.
Through all of it, there was one person Frank was particularly keen to find. His AFP colleague Nicolle Haigh had also been in the Sari Club that night but had not been heard from.
Frank trawled though all the nearby hospitals, medical centres and, with a mounting sense of dread, the local morgues, but with no luck.
Twenty-four hours later, Frank found Nicolle. She was still alive but seriously hurt.
"Nicki had been quite badly burnt," he said.
"Very luckily there was no injury to her face, but her right arm had been badly burnt and as a result of the burns, it had swollen up considerably."
Frank collared a doctor, who decided urgent surgery was needed.
"Essentially what he did was run a razor blade from the top of her shoulder down to her elbow just to release the pressure, because the arm had swollen up," he said.
"The same with her forearm through to her hand just to let the fluids, I suppose you could call them, to let them out."
Adding to the degree of difficulty, there was no anaesthetic available.
"I let Nicki know that and held on to her, face to face, and just said 'hang in there, we'll get through it.' It was probably one of the bravest things I've ever seen, her doing that," he said.
Nicolle later said the outcome would have been very different if Frank wasn't there.
"I owe my courage to Frank Morgan," she said.
"I don't know if I could have gone through it without him."
Nicolle survived, and while Frank left Bali four days later, that night has never left him. He's suffered from panic attacks, and for some time afterwards was physically and mentally shattered, living on cigarettes and coffee.
"It's difficult. You don't think there's anything wrong with you. But, really there is," he said.
"You deny it. You don't want to be the victim. But it affects your life in ways you don't realise until many, many years later.
"It's just a build-up of issues."
'Enormous sadness' as anniversary approaches
As the 20th anniversary of the bombings approaches, Frank continues to feel enormous sadness for the victims' families, and those who were injured
He's also unhappy with what he believes is the lenient punishment meted out to the terrorists behind the attack.
Like a lot of people who have been through traumatic events, Frank doesn't like talking about his experience that much. He left the AFP in 2015 after a 25-year career.
He hasn't kept in contact with Nicolle Haigh or Tim Fisher but caught up with Karen Smith about a decade ago.
"I think it's something if you keep bringing it back to the front of mind, it affects your life," he said.
"It affects people around you. It is just better to keep it to myself … very few people know the full story."
