Draughtsman who drew up Stardust renovation plans had not read fire standards, inquests hear

The draughtsman who drew up plans for the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin, where 48 young people died in a fire in 1981, had not read statutory fire-protection standards for buildings when the venue was being refurbished, inquests into the deaths have heard.

Fresh inquests into the deaths of the 48, aged between 16 and 27, who died in a fire at the Artane ballroom in the early hours of February 14th, 1981 are being heard in Dublin Coroner’s Court, following a recommendation in 2019 by then attorney general Séamus Woulfe.

On Wednesday, testimony from Harold Gardner, a draughtsman who drew up plans for the conversion of a former food factory into an entertainment venue, was read into the record. Mr Gardner, who is dead, gave evidence at the 1981 tribunal of inquiry chaired by Mr Justice Ronan Keane.

Mr Gardner told the 1981 inquiry he had not specified seating-upholstery should be fireproof and had not checked whether carpet tiles being placed on the Stardust walls complied with fire regulations. At that inquiry it was stated carpet tiles on the walls contributed to the rapidity with which fire engulfed the venue.

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Asked in 1981 whether he recommended to Patrick Butterly, who owned the venue and who is also dead, installing a sprinkler system, Mr Garner said: “I believe I suggested it on one occasion... but he wasn’t interested.”

“Did you consider recommending that to Mr Butterly, that you should install hydraulic hose reels?” he was asked by counsel. “No,” answered Mr Gardner.

“Do you think in retrospect that might be a good idea?” “I don’t think so.”

Later he was asked: “Had you read the fire protection standards issued by the Department of Local Government in 1967?”

“I hadn’t,” he said. “You’ve never read them?” “No.”

He said while he designed the Stardust’s 1,460 seats he did not specify the foam to be used in their upholstery, or that the PVC covering should be “flame retardant”.

“Should you not have done so?” he was asked at the 1981 tribunal. “Looking back possibly. At the time it seemed to be satisfactory,” said Mr Gardner. “The fire department knew what we were recommending.”

He had specified plaster be used on the walls as a fire-retardant and he was not consulted by Eamon Butterly, Stardust manager, about plans to use carpet tiles instead. When he saw them being stuck on the walls he asked Eamon Butterly if they were fire-resistant.

“I knew they should have a certain amount of flame-proofing,” he told the tribunal. When asked if he understood what “surface-spread flame-rating” [a stipulation in the planning permission for the Stardust] meant, he said it meant if a tile did catch fire “it would not go all over the place”. While he had known there were fire standards, he said, “I can’t remember what they were.”

He hadn’t examined the tiles himself or interrogated what Eamon Butterly understood by “fireproof”.

“I accepted him when he said they were fireproof. I did not have any reason to carry the matter any further,” said Mr Gardner.

Elizabeth Marley, aged 17 at the time of the disaster, told the inquests she had been a waitress in the Stardust. She was collecting plates at about 1.35am when she “got the smell of smoke” as she passed a screened-off area known as the west alcove.

She told her mother, who managed the kitchen, and they went into the ballroom where they saw flames on a seat towards the back of the west alcove, through a gap in the blinds.

Edward McNamee, aged 16 at the time, worked as a lounge boy and glass-washer. He told the inquests the bar closed at 1.30am and he went to use the toilet. On his way back to the bar “a bloke” ran past looking for a fire-extinguisher.

One of the blinds over the west alcove went up, he said. “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,” he said.