Only ‘likely’ cause of Stardust fire was hot press electrical fault, Dublin coroner’s court hears

The only “likely” cause of the fire in the Stardust nightclub, which led to the deaths of 48 people in 1981, was an electrical fault in the hot press, the Dublin coroner’s court heard on Monday.

Inquests into the deaths of the 48, aged 16 to 27, as a result of a fire in the north Dublin ballroom in the early hours of February 14th, 1981, also heard there were three “key factors” in the rapidity with which a small fire spread and engulfed the venue within four minutes.

Dr Will Hutchinson, forensic scientist and fire investigator, giving expert testimony for a fifth day on day 105 of the inquests, examined photographs showing the thermostat from the upper immersion heater in the Stardust’s hot press, taken after the fire.

They showed there had been no protective cap on the thermostat, meaning the thermostat was exposed to the surrounding atmosphere.

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The inquests have heard there was a resistive electrical fault in the wiring to this thermostat which could cause localised heating, and that the tank was insulated with a PVC-covered jacket.

Mr Guerin posited that this immersion, with the electrical fault at the thermostat, was exposed to colder air through a gap near the roof void. He said any potential cooling effect from that air could stop the thermostat switching off.

He agreed if it did not switch off when it should the electrical current would continue unabated through the faulty wiring. This could cause the wiring to over-heat and the PVC coating to melt and burn.

Dr Hutchinson has previously said the “possible” causes of the fire were that it started in the hot press or that it was started accidentally or deliberately in the west alcove. On Monday Mr Guerin put it to him that, given the absence of evidence for the fire to have been started in the west alcove, “isn’t the electrical fault in the hot press the likely cause, on the balance of probabilities, of a fire in the Stardust?” asked Mr Guerin.

“Yes, it is a likely cause,” said Dr Hutchinson.

The “key issue” for families of the dead and for those who escaped with injuries, said Mr Guerin, was why it developed with such speed “from a fire that appeared to be capable of being controlled to something that was completely out of control and engulfed the whole building”.

Two features “absolutely crucial to that process” were the low ceiling over the west alcove and the carpet tiles on the walls, agreed the witness. The fire was first observed inside, on seats at the back of the west alcove, abutting the wall and beneath the ceiling at its lowest point, the inquest has heard.

While the polyurethane-upholstered seats “were capable of producing heat” they would not have been sufficient to “produce this transition to a rapid spread of the fire without the involvement of the wall tiles”, said Mr Guerin.

“Yes, that’s right,” agreed the witness. The ignition of tiles above the seats “led to a considerable increase in the rate of heat output ... and the presence of flaming droplets”, he said.

The tiles and the seats produced flammable gases, and as the tiles burned towards the ceiling “they became a source of pilot ignition to the hot gases themselves”, said Mr Guerin.

The low ceiling then caused heat from the gases to radiate downwards, igniting the gases and causing the seats, by now releasing more flammable gases, to ignite spontaneously.

“In other words the radiating heat in the presence of the low ceiling and the flaming walls and the burning of the hot gases is enough to cause spontaneous ignition of the seats in the entire area,” said Mr Guerin.

Within two minutes of the carpet tiles igniting the atmosphere “would have been immediately hazardous to life”, the court heard. Test conducted during a simulation of the blaze in 1981, at the Fire Research Station in Borehamwood outside London, showed after one and a half minutes carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide “increased rapidly” to three and 17 per cent respectively, while oxygen dropped to two per cent.

A safe level of carbon dioxide is 0.04 per cent, and of oxygen is 21 per cent.

Three and half minutes after the carpet-tiles’ ignition, hydrogen chloride increased to 9,000 parts per million – a safe level is 5 ppm, and hydrogen cyanide levels showed a “sudden increase at about one and a half minutes”.

“Their conclusion then was that there was a time of about one and a half minutes after ignition ... where the atmosphere would be tolerable,” said Mr Guerin.

“After one and a half minutes the atmosphere would have been immediately hazardous to life.”

“Yes,” agreed Dr Hutchinson.

The inquests continue.

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