The Stardust inquests have heard that the locking or obstructing of the exits contributed to delays in people getting out of the burning building and to the loss of life on the night.
Martin Davidson, an expert witness and a senior fire engineer, was giving evidence for a second day at the Dublin District Coroner's Court at the hearings into the deaths of the 48 people in the 1981 disaster.
The inquests, which resume next Wednesday, have now completed hearing evidence in relation to the fire and the events surrounding it.
The coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, told the jury they will hear next week from an expert witness who’ll detail how an incident, like the Stardust disaster, would be dealt with if it happened currently.
Earlier Martin Davidson told the court that computer simulations carried out showed there were delays to the evacuation ranging from 34 to 92 seconds.
He said while 34 seconds "doesn’t sound like a lot", in the context of a rapid fire, it’s "huge".
Mr Davidson added that he believed the obstruction of the exits contributed to the loss of lie on the night.
He said: "the time people needed to get out, was much longer than the time they actually had."
The witness agreed with legal teams representing the families of the victims that the estimates were conservative and that a delay of three-and-a-half minutes would have been entirely possible and entirely catastrophic given the conditions inside the building.
He agreed too, with counsel Brenda Campbell, KC, that fire exits should be the easiest thing in the world to open and should not be obstructed.
The jury were also told that tests showed that 52 seconds after the roller blinds were lifted in the area where the fire was first spotted inside the club, the conditions in the north alcove seating area were "not tenable".
The court heard that after a minute of the smoke flooding from the west alcove, there would have been low visibility and dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.
Earlier, Mr Davidson told the jury, that there were a number of factors that contributed to the loss of life.
He said the designers of the club were not adequately qualified with little or no knowledge of fire safety and that there were multiple breaches of by-laws during construction and operation of the club.
Mr Davidson said while the means of escape were "relatively good" and there was more than enough exit capacity, they were rendered redundant by the rapid fire growth which was primarily caused by the carpet tiles on the walls and their interaction with the polyurethane seats.
The court also heard that an inspector did notice the walls were covered with "something other than plaster" during a visit before the premises opened to the public and identified it as a "significant departure" from what was expected.
The jury was told the drawing submitted as part of the by-law application showed plastered walls, not carpeted walls.
Brenda Campbell, KC, told the inquest that the inspector did not tell anyone about it because he felt "it wasn’t a bye law issue rather a fire department issue".
She also said the inspector at the time knew the fire department had ceased carrying out inspections and said it was "missed opportunity".
