The “fire risk” at the Stardust nightclub was described as “pretty horrendous” by an insurance company fire surveyor weeks before a blaze killed 48 people at the north Dublin venue in 1981, an inquest into the deaths has heard.
Richard Williams, who worked for Hibernian Insurance (now Aviva) from 1961 to 1997, told the Dublin coroner’s court on Wednesday that he recommended that the Stardust be refused insurance cover in 1979 and 1981.
He carried out a fire survey there in 1981.
“This included checking the construction, linings etc but did not include the safety of the patrons. I duly reported on the fire risk, which I thought was pretty horrendous, and recommended that we not quote, so it was turned down again”.
He had previously refused to quote for the Stardust in 1979, when he was working in underwriting, after reading a colleague’s fire report. The inquest heard that the Stardust was insured by another company.
Mr Williams was giving evidence on the 80th day of new inquests into the deaths of 48 people, aged between 16 and 27, following a fire in the early hours of 14 February 1981.
Asked by Mark Tottenham, BL, for the coroner, why he thought the fire risk was “horrendous”, the witness said the Stardust building could have been considered a “reasonably good fire risk” because it was a solid concrete structure. “But it was made worse by the combustible products that were put into it.”
He said a new cold room behind the main bar, in the northern part of the building, was “highly combustible” as its walls were filled with polystyrene foam insulation with an aluminium skim.
“When we saw the cold room, I realised there was a serious risk of [electrical] arcing in that particular area,” he said. He also had concerns about the materials used to line the interior walls of the ballroom and the ceiling tiles.
Earlier, Anthony Pasquetti, who began giving evidence on Tuesday, reiterated his account of seeing “10 foot” flames through the roof at the north of the Stardust at around 1.38am – from his family home nearby, minutes before a flame was first seen inside the venue.
When he and a neighbour got to the front of the Stardust at about 1.45am, the emergency services had not arrived, but they did “about five minutes later”. At first he said no one was leaving the building, but he soon saw kitchen staff coming out. He recognised two of them as neighbours.
There were some older people coming out of the Lantern Rooms function room with drinks. It was a “couple of minutes” before he saw younger people coming out of exit 3, behind the stage area, he said.
Fergus Kane, then 18, was at the Stardust with his girlfriend and friends Bernard Hogan, Eugene Hogan (24), who died, and Mr Hogan’s wife Marie. Eugene and Marie, who had two young daughters, were due to move to Co Kerry on 15 February 1981 as he had been offered a job.
The five were dancing when Mr Kane heard a “sigh” from the crowd. He looked around and saw a small fire in an area of tiered seating in the west alcove. “It wasn’t very big and didn’t look like it would be too hard to put out.
He told his girlfriend, Eugene and Marie to leave while he and Bernard got the coats and bags. At this stage, “it seemed quite calm and relaxed, but people were making their way to the exits,” he said.
When they got to the coats, he turned around and “very thick black smoke was coming from where the fire had started”. He had trouble breathing and the lights went out.
Unable to see, he ran towards a door with the coats over his head against the smoke. He fell. “I tried to reach the door three times, but each time I was overcome by the smoke. When I was on the ground I found it easier to breathe,” he told the court.
He could feel air “through a gap”, indicating that he was close to a door. He got up and tried to open it, “but there was a chain on it … It wouldn’t budge. I hit the door with my shoulder and nothing happened”. He ran towards the door and fell.
He came across a number of people “motionless” on the floor. “I ran at it again, but by this time the flames were close to the door. There were droppings coming down from the ceiling like hot wax” and the smoke was overwhelming him.
Then I got down beside it and finally that door opened. “I saw the beam of a torch shining in … I got up and ran towards the beam,” he said.
He came out of Exit 5, at the side of the dance floor.
“The fire had burned the coats by then. I burned my nose, two ears, my back and inhaled a lot of smoke”.
The investigations continue.
