'Take it very, very seriously': How fire brigade dealt with Stardust fire

The inquests heard this week of one 17-year-old girl who was grounded at the time but her mother was persuaded to allow her to go. She died in the fire

The beginning of testimony from first responders to the scene of the fire in the early hours of February 14, 1981, brought to an end over a month of evidence from patrons there on the night of the fire that killed 48 people. File photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Dermot Dowdall was in the control room at Tara Street Fire Station when the call came in at 1.43am.

A pair of his colleagues were discussing the two reports they had just received about a fire in Artane so he picked up the auxiliary phone, where 999 calls were fed in.