Stardust inquests: ‘The smoke started coming in under the door. I could hear the fire crackling outside’

Young people who were beginning to panic at the sight of fire in the Stardust nightclub in Dublin, in which 48 young people died in a fire in 1981, “sat back down” and “went back dancing” after the DJ told them “not to panic”, inquests into the deaths have heard.

Colm O’Brien, one of five DJs at the Artane venue in the early hours of February 14th, 1981, told Dublin Coroner’s Court on Thursday he was 20 years old at the time and had no fire-safety training, direction on how to announce an evacuation or information about where all the emergency exits were.

Fresh inquests into the deaths are being held following a direction by then attorney general, Séamus Woulfe, in 2019.

Appearing over Zoom from his home in Boston, Mr O’Brien said he had been “playing records” on the stage shortly after 1.40am when he saw a small fire in an area partitioned off from the main dance floor, known as the West alcove.

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“I thought it was going to be controlled,” he said. “As the fire got bigger I could see some of the people beginning to panic. I then made an announcement over the microphone.” He told people not to panic, he said, and continued playing music.

About 30 seconds later, however, as smoke billowed across the ceiling towards the stage, he made a further announcement, urging people to move quietly to the exits. Shortly after that, he said, the stage was “rushed”.

“About a minute after I first saw the fire, the entire area which was partitioned off was ablaze. I was still on the stage ... People in front of the stage panicked and ran on to the stage ... Girls were grabbing, asking for the way out.”

He said he was pushed downstairs beside the stage and into a toilet in the backstage area.

“I stayed there for about half a minute ... The smoke then started coming in under the door and I could hear the fire crackling outside.” He stood on the toilet and “tried to push through the ceiling”. He then wrapped his jumper over his face and in darkness felt his way along walls towards an exit, known as exit 3, where he got out.

He told the inquests he got sick outside. “We could hear people in the toilets between exit 3 and the main entrance banging the windows trying to get out.” People outside were trying to break into toilets and to go back into the venue. “The fire brigade and the gardaí were trying to stop them,” he said.

During his evidence he referred a number of times to one of his friends – another of that night’s DJs, Michael Barrett (17), who died in the fire. His mother, Gertrude Barrett, who has been in the public gallery throughout the seven weeks of hearings, was present.

Sean Guerin, SC, for the families of 10 of the dead including Michael Barrett, asked Mr O’Brien if he agreed a DJ, who had control of the audio, “could in fact be a very important role in the event of an emergency?”

“Correct,” he answered. Asked if had received any instruction from Stardust management on guiding an evacuation in an emergency, he said: “No, we weren’t trained in any exit practices or anything like that.”

“When you initially observed the fire you put on another record, it played through almost to the end ... You made an initial announcement telling people not to panic, that everything was under control. That was at a time when people were starting to panic.

“Your announcement seems to have had the effect initially of calming people down, that they sat back down, went back dancing. But then you made a further announcement asking people to leave, to go to the exits quietly and at that stage it seems the stage was rushed. Is that right?”

Mr O’Brien said there was an interval of “about 30 seconds” between the announcements and that the stage was “rushed” a short time later.

Elaine Stapleton, a 17-year-old waitress in the Lantern Rooms restaurant in the Stardust complex, told the inquests that sometime after 1.50am another waitress told her “there was a slight fire” and she was looking for a fire-extinguisher. She left with her mother, who was working in the kitchen that night.

“I ran straight out into the car park and a few minutes later I saw a [large] amount of flames coming from the roof. I realised the Stardust club was completely on fire.”

The inquests continue.