Jimmy Fitzpatrick's (37) survival of the Stardust fire was described by his doctors as a "miracle of medical science". He spent the largest amount of time, five months, in hospital of all the Stardust survivors, having suffered third-degree burns across his back, neck, face, down his arms and all over his hands.

Internally, his lungs suffered acute burn and smoke damage and the tendons in his hand-joints were effectively burnt away, leaving most of these joints fused together. His doctors considered at one stage amputating his hands. Skin was grafted from his chest, legs and sections of his arms while pumps daily drained "black, poisonous soot" from his lungs.

Now training as a solicitor, he says one of the reasons he chose a career in law was the anger he felt at what he called the "injustice" that no one was ever charged.

Twenty years ago he was an apprentice butcher in Superquinn in the Northside Shopping Centre. "A lot of us worked together there," he says "and went to the Stardust every Friday."

"That night we finished up work at about 9 and a few of us went down to the Stardust together."

Asked if he remembers what he was wearing he nods immediately that he does. "A navy suit and a red shirt."

The navy suit, he says, probably saved his life. "It was a three-piece wool suit and it didn't burn. It singed and saved my legs. The front of the waistcoat saved my chest.

"The night was going well until at about 1.30 the DJ said not to panic, there was a small fire on the premises. There were people gesturing up the area where the fire was and it was about four foot high I suppose, manageable if you knew what to do, but in seconds it was going across the ceiling.

"Then the DJ's microphone hit the floor and people were making a dash for the front door. I got out but then realised there were two friends still in there. I went back in for them and literally just threw them out the front. The walls were catching at this stage and I turned to run. The thing is, I fell over a handbag. Then the lights went out.

"Smoke was rolling at us like a ball of black - you could chew it, it was that thick. I jumped to my feet and started, unfortunately, back in. I fell again and knew I was going the wrong way. I heard people kicking and screaming. They were at a door and finally busted the lock and we all spilled out.

"I was jet black, skin was peeling off me and there was this reddy fluid pouring out of my head which I later found out was adrenalin." Someone brought him to an ambulance and because the back was full, he sat in the front with the driver. "When we got to the Mater and walked into casualty it was pandemonium. Nurses were running all over with basins of water. The pain was subsiding because my nerve endings were burnt away but I was swelling and swelling."

He says he woke to find a nurse cutting off his trouser legs, and smiles at the memory that he sat up and said: "Don't cut my suit". He woke again to find himself in intensive care, on a respirator and with his body swathed in dressings.

His parents and family were "devastated, but brilliant". "When my mam and dad came in first they didn't recognise me. I was charred black and swollen up like a football. But they just said, `Don't worry about a thing. We're here for you and we're going to get through this together' ".

"The whole family was totally supportive, just let me talk about it. If I wanted to sit up and talk all night, they were there to listen."

From the beginning he was determined not to let what happened hamper him in rebuilding his life. He knew how lucky he was and was "just going to move on." He attended the tribunal of inquiry just twice he says, "just to sit in front of Eamon Butterly [who had owned the Stardust] and show him the devastation".

He also attended the Tribunal of Compensation for Stardust Victims and having accepted the compensation could not take a case against the Butterly business.

He is now married with two young children.