A FORMER BARTENDER in the Stardust complex who told an inquest that he helped save a girl from the fire has been questioned by barristers as to why he had never given this evidence before in any previous statements.
“I’m not a hero, I’m a humble man,” Cormac Rose today told the jury in the Dublin District Coroner’s Court, during the inquest into the fire that killed 48 people when it swept through the Stardust nightclub in the early hours of 14 February, 1981.
Rose, who was aged 17 when he worked in the Silver Swan bar in the Stardust complex, told Brenda Campbell KC, representing a number of the families, that he was not given any training in evacuating patrons.
“I wasn’t told to do anything. We were just told that the procedure in the event of a fire was just to evacuate the building. They didn’t tell me to evacuate the patrons and then yourself, it wasn’t broken down into detail, it wasn’t formal fire training,” Rose said.
Campbell asked him if he had ever seen the exit doors in the Silver Swan chained and locked, to which Rose replied that he had not.
Campbell said the inquest had heard that in August 1980, a man drinking in the bar saw those exit doors chained and locked, and an inspector with Dublin Corporation was notified, who came out and found the doors chained and locked. Rose said he did not remember this.
Campbell asked him if he was aware of a procedure in the Stardust of exit doors being chained and locked, to which Mr Rose replied that he had “heard some hearsay about it” from the door staff.
“They were saying that the policy was changed, they were being asked to chain the doors between certain hours of the night to stop people getting in without paying, and then that policy changed to chains being draped over the doors,” he said.
Campbell said that when the witness gave evidence at the tribunal before Mr Justice Ronan Keane in 1981, he was asked if he knew about the policy of keeping doors locked, and his answer was: “It was news to me.” She asked him why he had given this answer.
“Because I thought what they were trying to ask about was whether I was aware of the policy on the evening,” he said, going on to say that he did not know what the policy was on the evening of the fire.
Rose said that after exiting the Stardust through a cellar door on the night, he went around to the front of the building to exit three.
“I went around to the front of the building and went in through the exit door, it was pitch black with thick smoke. I felt my way down the wall and stumbled on something, so I put my hand down to see what it was and it was just a ball of hair. I managed to pull the ball of hair towards the exit. As I got nearer to it, I was met by somebody from Dublin Fire Brigade, and he bent down and picked up the girl and took her away,” said Rose, adding that the girl survived.
Campbell asked why he never previously gave any account of rescuing anyone from the Stardust, in either his statements to gardaí or before the previous tribunal.
“I don’t want to make myself out to be a hero. I’m not a hero, I’m a humble man,” replied the witness.
Des Fahy KC, representing a number of families, put it to the witness that he could have chosen to exit through exit door five on the night instead of the cellar door. He asked Rose if, either directly or subconsciously, he had known not to go to exit five because it would be locked or have a chain draped over it.
“No, how dare you say that to me,” replied Rose.
Fahy asked him about his evidence concerning rescuing the girl at exit three. He said that the inquest had heard evidence that this exit was being used by the DJ, whose van was parked in a particular way at exit three. He asked Rose if his evidence remained that he went up the steps at this exit.
“Yes, I don’t remember that van being there. From what I can recollect it was a fire appliance parked horizontally,” said Rose, going on to say that he recalled a vehicle parked somewhere between exit two and three.
The jury also heard evidence from Eddie Farrell, who was a part-time barman. In his original statement, read out by the court registrar, Farrell said that three weeks before the fire, when the club was not open, there was a spot lamp shining on the stage, and he could see smoke reflecting in the light, but there was no smell. The manager and others there were worried about it, and they began searching the place to see if they could find out where it was coming from, but they could not find the source of the smoke.
Farrell said it looked like it was coming from the spot lamp, and it was white in colour and “looked like dust”.
“I am satisfied that it was only dust reflecting in the spot lamp,” he said.
Farrell confirmed to Bernard Condon SC, representing a number of the families of the victims, that he could have been wrong that it was dust sparkling in the light of the spot lamp.
He also said that he did not receive any fire drill or evacuation drill training, and people were “left to their own devices in the event of a fire”.
In response to questioning by Campbell, Farrell said that the exit he used through the Lantern Rooms part of the Stardust complex on the night of the fire was a route that the patrons would not have known about. He also said that no one told the patrons about this route on the night.
The inquest continues tomorrow.
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