A witness who was working in the Stardust club on the night of the 1981 disaster has spoken about the panic which ensued as the fire took hold.
Dermot O'Neill, who was an assistant cashier, described how he initially saw flames, around 18 inches (45cm) high, on a row of seats.
"It looked as if it was something that could be contained," he said.
He said, though, that within two to three minutes the smoke had taken over and there was panic, "that was as quickly as it happened".
Mr O'Neill said it seemed the smoke was going across the ceiling and there was a crush, wall to wall, as people tried to get out.
He described when the lights went out. "There was total panic … it was very hard to breathe."
Mr O'Neill was asked by Michael O'Higgins SC, for the families, whether he was aware of any policy of locking the doors between 10pm to midnight and then mimicking the doors being locked by wrapping the chains around them.
Mr O'Neill said he did not remember and said he was not at meetings that would have decided those things.
'Chairs were stacked on top of each other and covered both doors'
Another witness told the court how an exit was blocked by chairs.
Joseph O'Connor had been a part-time DJ for around nine months at the club, but was not working on the night.
He said chairs were stacked on top of each other and covered both doors of what has been referred to as Exit 4. "You couldn't see the doors, there were so many chairs there," he said.
He also said there was a lock and chain hanging off another exit door, but said he did not know whether it was locked as he did not check.
Mr O'Connor said he left the club at around 12.30am along with his girlfriend, before the fire broke out.
He said as she was leaving, he saw his girlfriend giving a staff member, Phelim Kinahan, "a piece of her mind" because she could not get out of two exits.
Mr O'Connor also spoke about his statement he gave to gardaí in February 1981 in Coolock Garda Station.
He said he was a little bit shocked when he saw for the first time the typed version of the written statement he gave and agreed with Des Fahy KC, for the families, that he asked for nine corrections to be made to it.
He said there were phrases in the typed statement that he would never use. He said in the typed statement, it states that he did not get the smell of paraffin on the night. Today he told the inquest that he never made reference to paraffin and said he could not even say what it smells like.
Asked by Mr Fahy if he had an explanation as to how that sentence finished up in his statement, Mr O'Connor replied no.
Asked by Shane Murphy SC, for An Garda Síochána, whether he agreed that recollections can dim after 40 years, Mr O'Connor said that anyone involved in the Stardust tragedy will never forget until the day they die.
'The key was turned again when we left'
Another patron on the night, Lorcan Doody told the inquest that when he was leaving the club at 1am the main entrance was locked. He told the coroner's court that a doorman told him he would have to wait until another colleague came with the keys. He said the wait time was around three minutes.
He also said that when the door was open, the shutters were completely down in four panels and around halfway down on one. He said the shutter was lifted up to allow him and friends to leave.
He told the court that when they left, the door was again locked. "The key was turned again when we left," he said.
James Shorthall, who was 20 years old, when he was in the Stardust that night, told the inquest that he saw smoke coming from the roof when he was leaving at around 1.40am. He said he could not tell where it was coming from.
He said, as he was pulling away in his car, he saw the doors of an exit burst open with people starting to come out.
He said there were no signs or smell of smoke, nothing to report until 1.40am.
