By breakingnews
A jury in the Stardust fire trial heard that the main entrance of the club was closed and the door key removed by the doorman the night before the deadly fire. 48 people lost their lives.
Frankie Downes who was guarding the entrance to the building on February 13, 1981 told the gardai that he had locked it, taken out the key, and carried this around in his pocket all night.
Doorman: I did it because of the broken glass on the door. Someone could have opened it with their hands.
After the fire, Mr Downes described how he helped people to escape the building through the front entrance.
When panic and thick smoke set in, he described an “unmerciful” scream as people “crammed” into the door.
In the inquest on the Stardust fire in Artane that resumed after the summer holiday, a number deceased or unavailable witnesses were heard. Many of them worked in the complex when the fire broke out.
Door locked
On February 14, 1981, in his first statement to the gardai, Mr Downes stated that he had been on duty all night at the main entrance of the club and that doormen stopped admitting customers at about 12.30am. He claimed to have locked the club’s main door, and placed the key into his pocket.
Leo Doyle was the security manager at the time and informed the doorman that there was an unimportant fire. He then took the extinguisher back to the location of the fire.
He said that Mr Doyle had tried to call 999 to summon the fire department but was unable to get through. Mr Downes then instructed him to dial it. He claimed to have tried ringing once or twice, but without success.
After five minutes, he said he saw smoke from the hall coming through the front door. The man said that he opened both doors of the double front door, as the door was double. He then claimed the crowd began to rush out from the club.
He said that the crowd had become “panicked” and tried to calm it down. He was knocked to the ground and fell to his knees, but managed to stand up. At this point, all of the lights had gone out and the smoke was thick and difficult to breathe.
The man said that he began to drag two other people out of the building. When he was outside, he said he had tried to stop people from returning into the building.
On February 14, 1981, in his first statement to gardai, Mr Downes stated that a doorman had opened all exit doors before the disco started.
In his second declaration, however, he stated that he had not seen any doorman open the padlocks, or remove the chains at the exits.
When he said that the doorman opened the doors in his initial statement, he “presumed”, that this was a normal procedure, as he has performed the same duty in the past.
He claimed to have kept the key the entire night, except on one occasion where he went into the bathroom and walked around the club in the dark for 10 minutes. While he was gone, he said he gave the key to another front doorman.
He said that at around 1.30am, the doorman handed him keys. Then he told him to lock all the exits doors after the dance.
He told me that about five minutes after he said this, Leo Doyle appeared and asked him if Mr Doyle would be able to lock the doors for him because he was busy with other tasks.
Then he said that Mr Doyle had agreed to lock up the doors and take the keys.
The man said that he had no doubts about the fact that the door to the house was open when the fire department arrived. He was also “almost sure” the doors were wide opened when the fireman arrived, but he couldn’t be certain.
In 1981, Mr Downes testified before the Honourable Justice Ronan Keane that he had directed all people towards exit number two (the front door) because he was aware that it was already open.
Exit
He said that he never considered the possibility of a crowd forming at exit number two, as he assumed all exits were open.
The man said that people had gathered in the cloakroom. He then remembered, “I heard a scream unmerciful, not just one person, but a crowd screaming”.
He said that at this point there was “a surge” toward the exit, and he had been knocked down. The doorman said that the smoke and lights went out, and then he realized “everyone” was collapsing.
At that moment, he said he had been scared and yanked himself free “with brute strength”. When Mr Downes looked up, he said: “I could not believe what I was seeing. There were people jammed into the door.” I couldn’t believe that the door had people jammed inside it. It was only five feet in width.
When asked if he could prove that the doors had never been closed after he left, Downes replied: “I can remember the doors shutting” and then added: “I’m not sure I saw them close, but I do remember them being closed.”
When asked if they were closed or open, Mr Downes replied: “I’m not sure”.
Austin Bell, who was a club doorman, told gardai that some of the exit doors were locked and chained until midnight.
When Mr Bell arrived at work the evening of the 13th February 1981, Mick Kavanagh gave him the Stardust keys. He claimed that he had asked Mick Kavanagh to “open up”, but Kavanagh said he’d do it, and returned the keys.
He said that he had been on duty for the majority of the night at doors 4, 5, and 6 from approximately 9pm to 12.30am. On one occasion, he said he checked the exit number five and a bottle cart was blocking it. As it blocked the exit, he said he could not get inside to check the locks.
When he opened the exit six door, he saw that the lock was in place. The chain had been wrapped around both bar on the door. He stated that he also checked the exit number five around 10.30pm, and found it to be similarly locked. The chain was wrapped across both bars on the door in a secured position.
The chain was hanging on the left side of the exit. This was his position the entire time he spent there.
He said he had checked the exit at midnight and that it is still locked. Tom Kennan was the head club doorman at that time, he said.
In his testimony to the Keane Tribunal, Mr Bell described how “black drops”, which were coming down from the ceiling while he and other people tried to extinguish the fire with an extinguisher. The fire was too hot for him to continue, so he made a retreat.
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