A doorman at the Stardust told gardaí it was “common knowledge” that the exit doors were to be kept locked and that this instruction “came from the top”, an inquest has heard.
However, in his original statements to gardaí John Furley, a 23-year-old part-time doorman at the time of the fire, added: “Nobody actually said this to me nor did I hear anyone instructed to keep these doors locked. I knew [Stardust manager] Eamon Butterly was vexed about people getting in for nothing and he had his floor manager on the stairs watching out for this.”
Mr Furley said the normal procedure up until a couple of weeks before the fire was that the first doorman in would open the main door and unlock the chains on all the exit doors.
These chains, though unlocked, would be thrown over the doors to give the appearance they were locked.
Mr Furley also told the inquest on Tuesday of desperate attempts made by a group of youths to open one of the exit doors and how, even after they were successful, the door was partially blocked by a skip containing empty bottles.
The former doorman said he saw a group of six or seven youths kicking at exit five an attempt to open it. He said he shouted at them to push down the bars and went over to assist with this. As he did so, the doors opened but were obstructed on one side by a skip which was in the way.
He said someone moved the skip outside the doors, which were then opened fully. Mr Furley told the inquest only a small number of people, between 20 and 30, escaped through this door.
He said many others walked by an open exit as they tried to escape because it was so dark they could not see it.
Mr Furley agreed with Brenda Campbell KC, representing a number of the families of the victims, that this attempt to open the exit door was a “huge” part of his experience on the night and was significant because it delayed people getting out as they could not open the doors.
Asked if he had any explanation why that was not in the account that Mr Butterly’s solicitors made a note of following the fire, the witness said he had “no idea”.
When Ms Campbell queried whether he ever felt under pressure about what he could or could not, or should or should not say in his statements to gardaí, Mr Furley said he “didn’t know”.
Exit door kicked out
He also told Dublin District Coroner’s Court that three weeks before the fire, on either a Friday or Saturday night, he found the door at exit six had been kicked out from the inside. When he examined it, he found the chain was still on both bars and the padlock was still securing it.
He told Ms Campbell that another party, “went and got a hammer and nailed it closed”. He confirmed that the disco was still going on when the door was nailed shut and the patrons were still inside.
Asked if this caused him any concern, Mr Furley said: “I thought it was strange, but that was about it really.”
“Is it fair to say that it didn’t cause you a huge amount of surprise because, as you told us in your statement, the exit doors number one and six were always chained and padlocked in your experience and never opened?” counsel asked. “Correct,” he replied.
The inquest has heard that the Stardust had been open for three years as a venue for various music concerts and dances before the St Valentine's Day fire broke out. There were three venues on the site, including another function area known as the Lantern Rooms and a bar known as the Silver Swan.
Badly burned girl
In his statement, Mr Furley told how after leaving the building, he went back to the Lantern Rooms to help clear it out and said he and another doorman pulled a girl who was badly burned out through a fire exit.
He was asked by Ms Campbell why after exiting the premises, he had run around the building without checking whether several of the fire exits he passed along the way were open or not, and then re-entered through the Lantern Rooms.
“Why switch you immediate focus to the Lantern Rooms?” counsel asked.
“Because there was a few hundred people in there… I didn’t know whether the fire was going to spread in there as well,” he replied.
Counsel questioned if his reason for doing this was possibly because he knew he had left that exit door locked and chained. “Absolutely not,” Mr Furley replied.
Ms Campbell said evidence has previously been given by patrons who said they had found this exit door locked when they tried to escape.
“Do you accept the evidence you were there to open that door?” Ms Campbell asked again. “No, I wasn’t there to open the door,” the witness said.
Unlocked doors
In one of his statements to gardaí, Mr Furley said when he started work on February 13th he collected the keys to the Lantern Rooms.
He said he opened the exit by the stage at around 8.20pm to allow Mick Morrissey who was playing that night, to bring his gear in. He said there was a chain on the bars of this exit door and it was secured by a padlock.
“I opened the padlock, took off the chain and locked it again around one side of the door. I did not lock this chain back onto both sides of the door at any stage.”
He said twenty minutes later, he unlocked the chain on the only other exit door in the Lantern Rooms, which was the exit door beside the toilets, in the same way.
“When the chain was locked on just one side of the door it could be opened in the normal way from the inside easily pushed out,” he said.
Evidence was also heard today from Seamus Murphy, who was an 18-year-old barman the time.
He outlined his efforts to evacuate the Lantern Rooms where he was working after the fire in the Stardust was noticed.
The former barman told how after urging those in the Lantern Rooms to leave, he then went to the toilets to alert anyone in there to the fire.
He said after leaving the building he went to look for his sister Anne Marie, and her two friends and after being assured that they had got out, he went to offer his assistance to those injured in the fire.
The inquest heard it subsequently transpired that Caroline McHugh – a friend of one of his sisters who had been due to stay at their family home while her parents were abroad at a wedding – had died in the fire.
Mr Murphy said he and his sister had never spoken about what happened on the night of the Stardust blaze as it was something they both found very difficult to discuss.
Ms Campbell, told Mr Murphy that she acts on behalf of a number of the families of the deceased, including Caroline’s parents Phyllis and Maurice McHugh. “May I extend our thanks to you for the assistance you tried to give,” she said.
'Unorganised mayhem'
In his evidence to the inquest on Tuesday, Mr Murphy described the scenes in the minutes after the fire was first noticed as “unorganised mayhem”.
He said after he finished work in the Lantern Rooms, he went into the Stardust club and was chatting there when someone said there was a fire.
Mr Murphy said he went back into the dispense bar and shouted there was a fire and from there he went into the Silver Swan and told the barmen there about the blaze before trying to locate a fire extinguisher in the main foyer.
In his original statement, the former barman said he went back into the Stardust and saw the fire had got worse and people were starting to panic.
He then went back into the Lantern Rooms and shouted to the all the customers there to “get up and get out” as there was a fire in the Stardust club before running into the toilets and telling the people there to leave.
As he went back into the Lantern Rooms, the lights started to flicker and then went out.
He said he went back to the Stardust and assistant manager, Jack Walsh shouted at him to get out.
Once outside, Mr Murphy went to look for his sister and her friends and met someone who told him they were okay.
No fire training
He told Mark Tottenham BL, a member of the coroner’s legal team, that he had never had any fire training of any kind and was acting of his own volition when he attempted to evacuate the building.
“We were just flying around shouting at people to get out and we cleared it [The Lantern Rooms].”
He said there were “droves of people” at the main entrance, but he had “no recollection” if the door was open or closed.
Des Fahy KC, representing a number of families of the deceased, told the witness it was clear he had behaved “with a great deal of bravery and humanity on the night”.
The former barman confirmed to Mr Fahy that the actions he took on the night were actions he decided on himself without instruction from anyone.
“Yes it was just a natural instinct to get people out,” he said. “We were looking at something big from the start… I think I just went into overdrive.”
The inquest continues on Wednesday.
