A witness who was working in the Stardust on the night of the blaze has told an inquest of how he saw the flames “creep out along the wall like a mushroom”, and how he had to use his bike lamp to help an assistant manager find a set of keys to open a locked door in order to exit.
The jury at the Dublin District Coroner’s Court in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital heard evidence from Edward McNamee, who was working as a washer-up in the Stardust on the night the fire that killed 48 people swept through the premises in the early hours of February 14th 1981.
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.
In his original statement to gardaí, read out by the court registrar, Mr McNamee, who was 16 at the time, said that he was coming back from the toilets at around 1.35am, when a man ran past him calling for a fire extinguisher.
“I looked towards the curtain, and I saw a bloke sort of falling against it. I saw the curtain fly up and I saw the back of a chair on fire. The carpet under the chair was on fire as well. It spread towards the wall at the back, which was also carpeted, and that started to go on fire,” said Mr McNamee.
In an additional deposition made at the time, Mr McNamee said that the fire “began to creep out along the wall like a mushroom and the tiles on the wall caught fire and spread to the ceiling”.
He said he ran back down the corridor and saw the assistant manager looking for keys in the office, where the lights were out. Mr McNamee said he used the lamp of his bike, which was parked in the corridor, to assist in finding the keys, and the assistant manager opened a steel door with the keys through which Mr McNamee exited.
Mr McNamee also said that earlier that evening, he saw a bouncer walk to one of the exits and then heard “a rattle of chains”. He said he saw the bouncer then walk to two more exits, where again he heard the rattle of chains.
No fire drill
Mr McNamee confirmed to Seán Guerin SC, acting on behalf of certain families of the deceased, that there had been no fire drill during the nine months to a year that he worked in the Stardust.
Further evidence was heard from Liz Marley, who was 18 when she was working in the Stardust. In her original statement, which was read out by the court registrar, Ms Marley said she saw smoke across the ceiling.
She said she saw flames behind the shutter that partitioned off the left section of the hall. She ran down to the bar and shouted that there was a fire in the left balcony, before she went into the Lantern Rooms and told two barmen. She pointed out a fire extinguisher to one of the barmen, and she gave another fire extinguisher to a bouncer.
She said there were 300 people in the Lantern Rooms, and she tried to get back into the disco, but when she pushed the door, the smoke was thick and black and there was a very strong smell.
Ms Marley said she saw fire between the joining of the shutters, and she estimated that two seats were on fire. She said that it was around 1.35am when she first saw the fire.
In her additional deposition, Ms Marley said that a seating area was screened off, and when she was passing this section, she got a smell of smoke that “smelt like fabric burning”.
Michael O’Higgins SC, on behalf of some of the families, said that in her evidence during the tribunal conducted before Mr Justice Ronan Keane in 1981, Ms Marley said that she did not know what burning fabric smelt like, but she just knew it wasn’t burning paper that she smelt.
“Yes, I’m not an expert,” replied the witness.
She went on to say that she never received any fire training while working at the Stardust.
In response to a question by Mr Guerin, Ms Marley said that once the fire was noticed, an announcement was made in the Lantern Rooms notifying patrons, but this was not heard by the people in the Stardust ballroom.
The statement of an unavailable witness, Harold Gardner, was also read out to the jury by a member of the coroner’s legal team. Mr Gardner was an architectural draftsman who worked on the revised plans for the Stardust, which were approved in 1978.
Planning condition
Extracts from Mr Gardner’s questioning during the tribunal before Mr Justice Keane were also read out. He was asked about a planning condition that stated if a building contained flammable materials, then it should have a sprinkler system installed.
“I’ve got an idea that I mentioned it on one occasion,” replied Mr Gardner, going on to say that he believed the owner, Patrick Butterly, was not interested in the system.
Mr Gardner said that he was not involved in the decision to put carpet tiles on the walls of the Stardust, and he did not consider getting full information from the manufacturers of any products used. He said that he did not specify what the foam seats should be made of, nor did he specify that they should be fire-resistant.
The jury also heard evidence from Francis Kenny, a trainee fireman and part-time doorman at the Stardust, who was off duty on the night of the fire but attended the venue with his girlfriend. They left the Stardust before the fire broke out.
In his original statement, read into the record by the registrar, Mr Kenny said that on normal nights, doormen working in the Stardust were directed to open the exit doors by opening chains that were padlocked and then hanging the chain on one bar to make it appear as if the door was still chained.
He said that on two occasions, he was given keys to open the padlocks, and when he did, he threw the chain over the bar to give the impression they were still locked. He said that he had been an electrician for seven years, and he had never noticed anything unusual about the lighting equipment or electrical work at the Stardust.
The inquest resumes tomorrow when Mr Kenny will continue his evidence.
