A witness at the Stardust inquest has said she saw "big sparks" in the ceiling of the same ballroom at a concert a month before the fire which "were so big I wanted to leave".
Fiona Doherty had attended the Stardust ballroom on 15 January 1981.
One month later a fire at the nightclub claimed 48 lives.
Ms Doherty gave her evidence at the hearing this morning, saying she was "worried the sparks may cause a fire".
She said the sparks lasted for 10-20 minutes, came in stages and made a crackling sound.
Ms Doherty was 17-years-old at the time, and had gone to a concert by two bands, The Specials and The Beat, with her friend Suzanne McCluskey, who gave separate evidence yesterday.
Speaking with the inquest remotely from France, Ms Doherty said shortly after the concert began she "saw sparks in the ceiling" in an area "five or six rows of people" back from the stage where photographs show the ceiling was uncovered.
She said: "I spent more time looking at the roof, the sparks, than the concert."
"I was quite concerned there was going to be a fire."
Asked by counsel for the inquest, Simon Mills SC, to describe what she saw at the time, Ms Doherty said "the sparks were quite big, I compared it [at the time] to sparks at the bumper cars, I was really concerned at the time," before repeating: "I spent the majority of the night watching the sparks because I was really concerned there was going to be a fire ... I was afraid a fire was going to break out."
Ms Doherty said after the 15 January 1981 concert she went home and told her father - who she said had an unrelated ballroom in Dublin - about what she had seen.
She said: "... We were to go to the Stardust on the night of the fire with another girlfriend but didn't go, and when it [the fire in February] happened my dad told me to go to the gardaí to make a statement."
Asked about her statement to gardaí in 1981, two days after the Stardust fire, Ms Doherty said while she initially said the sparks she saw on 15 January 1981 were purple in colour they may also have been orange.
She said: "I couldn't understand why nobody contacted me since 1981 because my evidence was quite important."
Asked by counsel on behalf of the families, Michael O'Higgins SC, if on reflection the garda record of her statement in 1981 "did not take account of the intensity of what you saw", Ms Doherty replied: "Yes."
She agreed her recollection of seeing the sparks on 15 January 1981, was "frightening".
When asked what first brought it to her attention, she added: "It must have been the sound, they [the sparks] must have been big because I wanted to leave."
Written evidence
Meanwhile, a waitress who worked at the Stardust dance hall until three weeks before the February 1981 tragedy has said the official version of the amount of flammable objects left in store rooms is "obviously wrong".
Caitriona Ross outlined her view in a written deposition to the Stardust inquest into what happened, which is taking place at the Pillar Room on the Rotunda Hospital complex.
In written evidence to the hearing, which Ms Ross said she was prompted to produce on foot of an RTÉ documentary first aired in 2006, she said she worked as a part time waitress at Stardust for eight or nine months.
Ms Ross said she left three weeks before the February 1981 fire, as she was working part time to help pay for hair dresser training.
Ms Ross said her role involved providing food and drinks to patrons, and as such she was fully aware of the level of contents held in the store room.
Her written evidence noted that the Stardust dance hall included two large six or seven foot long frying machines, and than up to 1,000 meals would be served on a given evening.
She said the store room's contents included 40 or 50 drums of cooking oil, dozens of boxes of plastic glasses, dozens of boxes of toilet roll, large amounts of washing liquid and other items which could be flammable.
She said the official version of how many of these items were in the store room is, in her view, "obviously wrong" given the number of people who attended the Stardust on dance nights.
Cleaners
In a separate written deposition, Doreen Delahunty told the inquest she was one of four full time cleaners at Stardust in the lead-up to the fire.
She said on Wednesday 11 February,1981, she and her colleagues cleaned the Stardust dance hall and that when they finished there were "no cigarette butts, not cigarette packets, no ash" anywhere in the location.
Emphasising the point, she said: "That is our job, to clean properly, and if we didn't [do that] we would be out of a job."
Ms Delahunty said on Wednesday 11 February, 1981, she remembers there being a "complete breakdown of power" in the electricity at the site.
She said it occurred twice for about five minutes, and that between then the "lights kept flickering".
Electrician
A third segment of written evidence came from Stephen Byrne, who provided it on 16 February 1981.
In the evidence, Mr Byrne said he was an electrician and was concerned over the "flickering" of a neon sign in the Stardust.
He said this could have been for three reasons, including a faulty connection, "de-gassing" in a connected tube, or a faulty transformer.
Further written evidence came from James Murphy, who was a schoolboy studying for his Leaving Certificate at the time of the tragedy.
When he was attending the Stardust, he said he and a friend both became aware of "a smell" in the dance hall, as did a bar man whose name he did not know but who was "over six foot tall, had a tight beard and black hair".
He said after trying to locate the smell, he saw an area with a number of wires closely tied together. He said it was the only time he was aware of a concerning smell at the dance hall.
Carpet tiles
A salesman who sold carpet tiles used on the walls of the Stardust dance hall has said the businessman he bought them from is "trying to cover" himself by saying it was never agreed to use them on the walls.
Declan Conway, 72, made the comment during his second day of evidence at the Stardust inquest into the February 1981 tragedy.
In evidence yesterday, Mr Conway confirmed he sold carpet tiles made by a company based in Bradford, England, to the Stardust, which were subsequently used on the walls of the nightclub.
Yesterday, he said despite garda evidence to a previous inquiry that the carpet tiles on the walls contributed to the fire, he received a fire certificate from the English company confirming the product met British standards and could be used on the wall.
However, during his second day of evidence at the inquest today, Mr Conway was repeatedly questioned on his view.
Mr Conway said: "There is no doubt in my mind they [the Bradford company] did know the tiles we were purchasing from them were going to be put on the walls."
He continued that he had "cast iron guarantees from this company" that it would be safe to do so and that "I saw photos of carpets used on walls in the UK".
However, it was put to him that this could not be the case as the carpet tiles were officially for use on the floor not on walls, and that perhaps he had simply seen carpet tiles placed on warehouse walls in the UK as examples of how they might look for customers.
Mr Conway responded to this suggestion by saying "absolutely not", before adding that in his view the business in Bradford was "trying to cover" itself and that "they would say that, wouldn't they".
Mr Conway said the Bradford company "clearly" knew the carpet tiles were going to be placed on the Stardust walls, as they had in his recollection given him advice on what type of adhesive to use in order to take such action.
He said the decision was taken to place the tiles on the walls as they provided superior acoustics than other alternatives, and that the cost of curtains or other options was far higher.
When it was put to Mr Conway the tiles were "sold off [to him] on the cheap" as they had been out of circulation by the time of the sale, Mr Conway said no as "they [the Bradford business] had to go out and get the yarn for this work... I'm saying it was not at the end of its life, they had to go out and manufacture it".
During the same hearing, Mr Conway was asked about a fire certificate he said he received from the Bradford company when he purchased the carpet tiles on 26 January 1977.
When it was put to him this was simply fire safety advice and not a certificate allowing the use of the carpet tiles on the walls, he said he knew it was a fire certificate as "that's what we sought, that's what we asked for" and that "the evidence we had been given was that was a safe product which we could use".
Acting on behalf of some of the Stardust families, senior counsel Michael O'Higgins said the evidence from Mr Conway and the Bradford business shows there is a contradiction.
Noting Mr Conway's view that the Bradford business "would say that" in terms of its recollection of events, Mr O Higgins asked Mr Conway if that is because of "human nature", before adding: "You're human yourself, so are you saying you're immune from that [human nature]?"
Mr Conway responded: "Certainly not. I'm telling you the truth, and I'm clear on what happened."
