In minutes 'total panic had taken over', Stardust inquest hears

Relatives of the people killed in the Stardust fire gathered at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin last month. Photo: David Young/PA

From a small fire initially being spotted in an unused area of the nightclub, it was just a few short minutes before the lights went out and “total panic” descended in the Stardust, fresh inquests have heard.

The inquests into the 48 people who died in the tragedy heard on Tuesday from four witnesses — two men who had worked in the Stardust and two patrons who left without knowing a fire would soon engulf the premises.

Having begun hearing from witnesses last Wednesday, the inquests are examining the circumstances of the deaths of those young people in the north Dublin venue in the early hours of Valentine’s Day 1981.

Dermot O’Neill, who worked for the entertainment company which booked the acts for the venue and handled the money, told the inquests how he had "divvied out" the money from the takings on the door to the kitchen and to the assistant manager of the venue at around 1.30am.

He then went to find one of the DJs to give him £15 he owed him when he heard a few girls complaining of a smell in the area of the west alcove of the venue. The alcove was separated from the rest of the venue by a screen. When it was lifted up, Mr O’Neill described seeing a “small fire” towards the back of the tiered seating in that area.

“I thought it could be controlled fairly easily,” he said. However, by the time he travelled the short distance to the area of the main entrance and foyer of the building, he said that the “smoke had taken over and there was panic”.

“The smoke seemed to come across the ceiling and go ahead of me as I went to the door,” he said. At this time, people were trying to get their coats back from the cloakroom in the foyer but as the panic worsened, a crush started as “wall to wall of people” began trying to reach the exit.

Mr O’Neill said he wasn’t aware of any practices of locking doors between certain times at the venue, and said he had had no training on what to do in the event of a fire.

The inquests heard that people had difficulty getting out the front doors they had originally come in at the time of the fire, and later witnesses described leaving the venue slightly earlier and the doors being locked at the time.

Lorcan Doody

Lorcan Doody was there on the night with friends. He had to get his car back home for 1.30am so he left at around 1am. When they tried to leave out the front door, this was locked with shutters down.

“There was one bouncer at the door,” he said. “He said we’d have to wait until the man with the key came back. The bouncer at the door didn’t have a key.” Mr Doody also described the shutters being raised slightly and him having to duck as he was leaving.

He also recounted an incident at around midnight where he – an apprentice electrician at the time – saw the disco lights momentarily go off as the music slowed down before everything quickly resumed as normal.

He recalled the DJ saying that it “doesn’t look like it’s going to be my night for the day that’s in it [Friday 13th]”.

One witness described seeing exits being blocked with chairs and another having a lock and chain on that evening, while the last witness described leaving the venue shortly before chaos descended.

Having not noticed anything untoward, patron James Shortall described seeing smoke from the ceiling and then seeing a number of people burst out of one of the emergency exits with large plumes of smoke accompanying them around two minutes after he left the venue.

The inquests continue.