Stardust inquests: Man saw flames ‘powering’ through roof minutes before fire seen inside

A man who lived less than 50m from the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin, where 48 people died in a fire in 1981, saw flames “powering” through the roof from outside several minutes before fire was seen inside, inquests into the deaths have heard.

Michael O’Toole, who lived on Kilmore Road in Artane, told Dublin Coroner’s Court on Friday that a junior doorman on the night, Michael Kavanagh, had said within hours of the blaze that four of the six exits had been padlocked.

He said his close friendship with Mr Kavanagh, aged 20 at the time, fell apart after he gave media interviews claiming to have opened the doors.

Giving evidence on day 74 of fresh inquests into the deaths of 48 people, aged 16-27, in a fire in the Artane venue in the early hours of February 14th, 1981, Mr O’Toole said he had an “exact recollection” of being woken by his father, the late Jimmy O’Toole, at 1.38am. He had a watch then which “kept good time”.

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Mr O’Toole snr had seen flames “about six foot high” through the roof of the Stardust from his bedroom window. The witness “threw on” clothes and was at the Stardust within two minutes, he said.

He stopped at the vehicular entrance and saw flames “powering up” through the roof to the rear of the venue above the storeroom and lamp room, to the rear of the north alcove.

“That is where I would be very confident that I saw the flames coming from first,” he said. “The flames were orange... shooting up.”

No one was exiting at that point, he said, apart from two members of staff from the kitchen door. “I was shocked... it was if there was no fire.”

Mr O’Toole’s account was “important”, said Des Fahy KC, for families of nine of the dead, as it suggested the fire was visible through the roof before it was seen inside. It tallies with that of Noel Scully who told the inquest in September that he had seen smoke from outside the venue 20 minutes before it was seen inside.

The inquests have repeatedly heard a small fire was first seen inside at about 1.40am.

Mr O’Toole said he later met his childhood friend, Mr Kavanagh, who was looking for his girlfriend, Paula Byrne (19) from Coolock, who died in the fire. He brought him to his home for a cup of tea at about 3am.

He said that while sitting at the kitchen table, Mr Kavanagh took a bunch of keys from his pocket. Holding them in his fist, Mr O’Toole said Mr Kavanagh told him: “If anything happens to Paula I’ll sue him for everything he’s got. They could not get out. The doors were padlocked.”

Mr O’Toole believed the “him” Mr Kavanagh referred to was Stardust manager Eamon Butterly, and the bunch of keys had been for the Stardust’s exits. He said Mr Kavanagh repeated several times, as they toured hospitals looking for Ms Byrne, that the doors had been “padlocked”.

“Between James’s Hospital and the [now closed] Richmond, Michael Kavanagh said to me, ‘Mick I am ashamed to say I am bouncer in the Stardust. We were told to keep the doors locked.’”

He dropped Mr Kavanagh back to the Stardust at about 5am. Mr O’Toole said he told him: “Mick make sure you tell the Garda about the doors being locked.”

On the afternoon of February 14th, however, Mr O’Toole said Mr Kavanagh told him he had been speaking to gardaí about the Stardust doors and that “everyone said they were open”.

“There was a change in what he was saying?” asked Mr Fahy.

“Definitely,” replied Mr O’Toole.

In an interview on RTÉ television’s Today Tonight news programme, broadcast on February 16th, Mr Kavanagh said he had unlocked the doors. When his father told him about the interview, Mr O’Toole said he was “horrified... I knew straight away he was lying”.

“The chat that was going around from the Saturday night and Sunday [was that the doors were locked]... People were really beginning to smell a rat in Artane.”

On February 17th, Mr O’Toole and his father gave statements to gardaí about what Mr Kavanagh had told them. On February 19th, Mr Kavanagh retracted his claims, telling gardaí: “I was wrong when I said I opened the fire exits or removed the chains binding both doors of each exit.”

The “correct story”, he said in that statement, was that he collected the keys to the exit doors’ padlocks from the Silver Swan bar office at about 9pm and was going to open the them when, at about 9.20pm, deputy head doorman Leo Doyle “told me not to unlock them”.

Asked by Joe Brolly, counsel for families of 10 of the dead, if he had challenged Mr Kavanagh about his claims he had opened the doors, Mr O’Toole said: “There was [a] whole different game on then. There was something bigger going on, I felt. I didn’t engage in it.”

Giving evidence in September Mr Kavanagh described his 1981 claims about opening the exits as “stupid”.

He had “no idea” why he made them and it was “maybe” out of “loyalty” to fellow doormen. He said he was not “thinking straight” at the time and “for weeks on end” after the fire.

“I got caught up in something that was not of my making. I got caught up in all of that,” he added.

The inquests continue on Tuesday.