A witness who was working in the Stardust nightclub on the night of the disaster has described how a lamp from his bicycle was used to help open an exit door as the fire took hold.
The blaze killed 48 people when it swept through the premises in Dublin in the early hours of 14 February 1981.
Edward McNamee was 16 years old at the time and was working as a 'washer-upper', responsible for collecting glasses and tidying.
He told the inquest that his bike was parked in a corridor and that the lamp from it was turned on to help a colleague unlock the door which led outside.
He also told how he saw the flames on the back of a chair in the west alcove of the ballroom.
He described watching as they began to creep around the walls like a mushroom.
"It didn't go along the wall, it went up, straight up," he said.
He also said there were no fire drills in the period of time he was working at the club.
Liz Marley, who was working as a waitress on the night, recalled first smelling smoke at around 1.30am as she passed the west alcove in the ballroom.
"I don't think I saw smoke, I just smelled it," she told the coroner’s court today.
Asked if it would be fair to describe it as an unusual smell, she said it would.
She said she then went and told her mother, who was also working that night, and began to raise the alarm.
She said she remembers looking up and seeing flames behind the blinds. She described them as orange in colour with heavy smoke.
Liz Marley also told the court how she heard a colleague in the function room instructing the music to stop and telling people to get out, but she said she did not hear any similar announcement in the main ballroom.
She agreed that the announcement in the function room would not have been heard in the ballroom.
Asked today whether she had received any instructions about what to do in the event of a fire, she said: "No, none, whatsoever."
Flame retardant
The inquest heard how the draughtsman who drew up plans for the Stardust club did not specify that the PVC seat coverings should be treated with a flame retardant.
Statements from Howard Gardner, now deceased, were read into the record along with transcripts from the 1981 Keane report into the fire.
He was asked at the 1981 inquiry, whether he should have recommended flame retardant covering for the seats. He said looking back, possibly, but at the time it was deemed satisfactory.
The coroner's court also heard how he had not read the Fire Protection Standards which were issued by the Department of Local Government in 1967.
He was asked at the 1981 inquiry if he had discussions about installing a sprinkler system when it was being converted. He said he had a feeling he mentioned it once to Patrick Butterly on one occasion but that he was not interested.
Howard Gardner also told the Keane inquiry that it was Eamon Butterly who told him he was going to put carpet tiles on the walls and not curtains.
