THE MAIN DOOR of the Stardust nightclub was locked and the key was removed and held by a doorman on the night of the fatal fire, the jury at the inquest into the blaze which claimed the lives of 48 young people has heard.
At the inquest into the fire at the Stardust complex in Artane, which resumed today following the summer break, a member of the coroner’s team read out statements from a number of deceased and unavailable witnesses, many of whom were working in the complex at the time of the fire.
Frankie Downes, who was manning the main entrance on the night of 13 February, 1981, told gardaí he locked the door, removed the key and kept it in his pocket throughout the night.
The doorman said he did this because the glass in the door was broken and someone could have put their hand in and opened the door.
Downes also described his efforts to help people escape through the front door after the fire broke out.
He described hearing an “unmerciful scream” as throngs of people were “jammed” in the front door when thick smoke spread and panic set in.
He told how he pulled people out and was “throwing” them down the front steps of the building in an effort to free them from the crush.
In his initial statement to gardaí on 14 February, 1981, Downes told gardaí that he was on duty at the main door of the club all night and that the doormen stopped admitting people at around 12.30am.
He said he locked the door and put the key in his pocket.
The doorman said Leo Doyle, who was in charge of security at the club, informed him there was a small fire at approximately 1.40am and took a fire extinguisher with him back in to where the fire was.
Downes said Doyle tried to ring 999 for the fire brigade but couldn’t get through and then told him to do it.
He said he tried to ring once or twice without success.
He said after five minutes he noticed smoke coming from the hall through the door. He said he then opened the front door on both sides as it was a double door and the crowd started to “rush forward” from the club to get out.
Downes said the crowd was in a “panicked state” and he tried to calm them down.
He said he was then knocked aside and fell on his knees but managed to get up again and at this stage all the lights were out, the smoke was very thick and it was difficult to breath.
He said he then started to force his way out and dragged two people with him. He said when he got outside he tried to restrain people from going back into the building.
In his initial statement to gardaí on February 14, 1981, Downes said all the exit doors were opened by a doorman prior to the disco starting.
However, in his second statement, he said that he did not see any doorman opening the padlocks or removing chains from the exits.
He said when he had said in his original statement that a doorman had opened the exits, he had “presumed” that it had been done as it was normal practice and he had attended to this duty on several occasions in the past.
He said he kept the key for the entirety of the night except for one occasion when he went to the toilet and took a walk around the club for about ten minutes.
He said while he was away he handed the key to another doorman.
Downes said at about 1.30am the head doorman came to him and handed him a bunch of keys and instructed him to go around the exit doors when the dance was over and lock the exit doors.
He said about five minutes later Leo Doyle came out and he asked Doyle if he would lock the exits for him as he had a number of other jobs to do.
He said Doyle agreed to take the keys and lock the exits to the hall.
He said he was satisfied the front door was not locked when the fire brigade arrived and said he was “almost certain” that the doors were open wide when the fire brigade man arrived but added he could not say for certain.
Downes told a tribunal before Justice Ronan Keane in 1981 that he directed people to exit two – the front door – as he knew that was open.
Asked if he considered whether too many people coming to exit two might cause a crush, he said he “honestly never thought of that” as he had assumed the other exits would be open.
He said people were congregating at the cloakroom and the next thing he remembered was “I heard this unmerciful scream, it wasn’t one, it was a whole crowd of people screaming”.
The doorman said at this stage there was a “surge” towards the exit and he was knocked over. He said the lights then went out and there was a gust of smoke and he knew then that “everyone was falling over each other”.
He said he was frightened at that point and pulled himself out “with sheer brute force”.
Downes said when he looked up: “I couldn’t believe what I saw, there was people jammed in the door. To think that door was five feet wide with people jammed in it…I ran up the steps…I kept pulling the people out and throwing them down the steps.”
Asked if his evidence was that at no time after he got out, the doors were in a closed position, Downes said: “I remember the doors closing” before adding: “I don’t remember them closing, I remember seeing them closed”.
Asked whether they were open or not Downes said: “I don’t know”.
In his statements to gardaí, Austin Bell who worked as a doorman in the club, said some exit doors in the club were chained and locked until at least midnight.
Bell said when he arrived for work on the night of February 13, 1981, he met Mick Kavanagh who gave him the keys to the Stardust.
He said he asked Kavanagh if he should “open up” but Kavanagh told him he would do it and took the keys back from him.
Bell said he was on duty at exit doors four, five and six for most of the night from 9pm until 12.30am approximately. He said checked exit five on one occasion and there was a bottle trolley blocking the exit.
He said as it was blocking the exit he couldn’t get in to check the lock.
He said when he checked exit number six, he pulled the door and saw the chain was locked with a chain across both bars on the door in a locked position.
He said he checked exit five at about 10.30pm and also found this to be locked with the chain around both bars and in a locked position.
He said exit four was unlocked with the chain hanging down on the left hand side. He said this was the position all night while he was there.
The doorman said the last time he checked exit six was at about midnight and it was still locked at this point. He said he saw the club’s head doorman, Tom Kennan, unlock it at approximately 12.20am.
Bell also described to the Keane Tribunal how he saw “black drops” coming from the ceiling as he and others attempted to tackle the blaze with a fire extinguisher.
He said he noticed this as he was retreating from the fire as the heat had become too intense.
In his statements, Gerard McMahon told how he was pushed into the toilets as the crowd started to panic after they found the exit at the back of the stage would not open.
He said girls were screaming in the toilet and he took off his coat and soaked it with water before putting it over his mouth.
McMahon said they were in the toilets for about fifteen minutes and were just about “at the point of collapse” when firemen forced in the door and saved them.
McMahon also told how he heard someone near him shouting “Jesus Christ we are all going to die” after the fire was spotted.
Fr Dermot McCarthy told gardaí he was part of The All Priests Show which toured all over the country raising money for charity.
He said a week before the fire, they had performed in the Stardust lounge.
The retired priest said after his piece was finished, he tried to leave through an exit door at the back of the stage but found there were chains on the door that were locked.
He said he was unable to open the door and had to go around the front of the stage. Fr McCarthy said he “angry” that the door was locked.
In his statements to gardaí, Sean Flood, who worked as a DJ in the Stardust, said after the fire started, he went backstage to open exit three but could not do so because it appeared the door was locked with a chain.
He said he and another girl who were at the exit tried several times to open the door but could not do so.
Flood said he then headed to the main exit, exit two but on his way he “fell over someone”.
He told gardaí there were a large number of people lying on top of each other at the cloakroom at exit two and described how it was hard to breath as the smoke got thicker.
He said he helped a number of people to safety through the main door before eventually collapsing himself inside in the dance hall.
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