Stardust fire ‘was going so fast, way above the normal temperature’, inquests hear

“If a fire engine was passing by that building at the time people were running out of it, by the time they got to work to lay down hoses, it would have made practically no difference the fire was going so fast,” said Mr McQuaid.

Now in the latter stages of its evidence, the inquest for the 48 people who died in the Stardust fire is hearing from emergency services who rushed to the scene on the night.

Mr McQuaid was at home when he received a call to go to the Stardust in the early hours of February 14, 1981.

As a more senior officer on site on the night, he described some of the decisions taken by those in charge as emergency services attended the scene of the devastating fire.

Mr McQuaid was asked about the situation regarding upgrading the incident from a “brigade call”, a term used to denote a serious situation where multiple emergency response units were required, to activating the major accident plan.

[The major accident plan] meant to me that the whole resources of the State were to be used to deal with this fire or incident.”

He said there was a lot of discussion between senior officers when this would be above a brigade call, and the resources of the State would be involved.

“It’s very difficult to arrange a training session for that,” he said.

Mr McQuaid said that Joseph Kiernan, another third officer, was directing the situation on the ground and was “up to his eyes organising a temporary morgue” beside one of the emergency exits of the Stardust to lay out the bodies brought out of the nightclub.

“And also in contact with a control room and organising as many ambulances within the city and county to respond there.

“Also organising with CIE to organise buses to take the walking wounded, people suffering from burns to their hair, face, hands, but could walk, to the hospital.”

Mr McQuaid described going towards the main door of the Stardust from inside the building and coming to the stairs leading to offices right by these main doors.

He said that on the landing of these stairs, he and colleagues discovered the bodies of two women. It was pitch dark in this area so he was not sure if they were badly burnt like some of those found in the main ballroom.

He said that they were clothed and agreed with Des Fahy KC, for some of the families, that this may suggest that they were not “extensively burned”.

Mr Fahy also asked him about the spread of the fire in the Stardust, and said that combustible material can contribute to the spread of a fire and the kind of high temperatures that were experienced in the Stardust.

However, he said he “wouldn’t go so far” as to say there was combustible material in the building.

“There was something in that building that contributed to the fast spread of fire,” said Mr McQuaid.