A survivor of the 1981 Stardust fire has described praying with other young people as smoke and heat intensified in the backstage room in which they were trapped, having given up hope of surviving.
Louise Murray, who was 17 at the time of the disaster, told Dublin Coroners Court on Tuesday that she had earlier stuck her head into a toilet cistern to cool her face as the room was so hot it was like “being in an oven”.
She was one of six witnesses on the 75th day of fresh inquests into the deaths of 48 people aged 16 to 27 in a fire at the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.
Ms Murray described being on stage with DJs when she first saw a flame on seats in a partitioned-off area of tiered seating known as the west alcove. She said a blind was lifted and flames shot “very quickly” across the ballroom ceiling.
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“It was nearly like someone in the circus put petrol in their mouth and they’d just blown [flame] out ... whoosh across the ceiling,” she said. “When we went to get down the back of the stage ... and we were all falling down on top of each other.”
Ms Murray said about 10 people then “crushed” into a toilet. “I could see thick black smoke pouring in over the top of the door ... The light went out.”
She left that toilet with others and found a dressingroom, where she ended up sitting between two wardrobes.
“There was pints of beer ... and I kept picking them up and swishing it around my mouth, spitting it out because I was [breathing] in stuff that nearly felt like lumps of chewing gum but hot ... and I was taking deep breaths and roaring like mad,” she said.
“Eventually I kind of gave up hope because in this room the people who were with me were just on the floor. After a while I just thought of my family, my friends and I kind of went into a trance I suppose. I just said, ‘Our father who art in heaven,’ and I said, ‘Please, whoever is in here please join me’ and they started praying.
“As soon as the prayer was over the door was kicked in. All I could see was a big, bright light and a big buckle, obviously it was the belt of the fireman, but I couldn’t see him. And he said, ‘Whosever is in here, can you come out’?”
Ms Murray said she remembered walking towards the fireman and then going to walk up on the stage, which was on fire, as she was in a “trance”. She said a man grabbed her sleeve and pulled her and she “collapsed down into his arms”.
She was taken by ambulance to the now-closed Dr Steevens’ Hospital where she was treated in intensive care for smoke inhalation.
Helen Henvey, who 18 at the time, said she was dancing with her friends Mary Kenny, and Mary and Martina Keegan, all from Coolock and who perished, and Antoinette Keegan when they saw the fire. When they went to get their belongings, the lights went out, she said.
She said they held hands to leave together, but let go as the heat became intense and pieces of burning material fell from the ceiling.
“I couldn’t see anything ... I crawled in underneath the tables to avoid what was falling from the ceiling. People were already under the tables, some of them were on fire. I could not stick it any more. My dress was stuck to me and I felt all stuck together,” Ms Henvey said.
“At this stage I did not care whether I lived or died .. Some youth picked me up and brought me outside ... I saw a heap of gravel. It was wet-looking and I went and rolled in it to try and stop the burning.”
She said she spent four months in hospital being treated for burns and had several surgeries.
Deirdre Dames, who was 18 at the time of the fire, described being trapped in the ladies’ toilets.
She had been out that night with friends, including Margaret Kiernan (19) from Coolock and Donna Mahon (17) from Edenmore, who died. She lost her friends, fell and “crawled into the toilets” where there were two others.
“You couldn’t see. You couldn’t breathe. I thought, ‘That’s it. We’re gone’. The chap was trying to pour water on to our faces. I was getting sick, getting weak,” she said.
She could hear people screaming outside trying to open the windows, which had been sealed closed weeks earlier with metal bars and sheets. Ms Dames said she could see into the ballroom which was ablaze and believed they would either burn or suffocate.
A member of Dublin Fire Brigade got into the toilets from the ballroom and brought them to safety.
The inquests continue.
