Like many in the Santika nightclub, Steven Hall was slow to realise that his life was in danger. A self-employed contractor from South Wales, he was in the club with his wife Waranya, whom he had recently married.

When flames began to spread across the ceiling he believed it was part of a pyrotechnic display.

“About 12.30 or 12.45, I saw flames billowing out across the ceiling,” he said. “At first I thought it was part of the show, along with everybody else, I think, but I noticed the look of terror on the people’s faces on the actual stage and I instantly realised it wasn’t.”

Mr Hall was speaking from hospital where he was treated for third-degree burns to his left hand and a badly burnt back. He described how he pushed his wife ahead of him as they tried to flee, shouting to others to leave. “Everybody converged towards the exit from the balconies, down the stairs area, and from the dance floor. It was a bit like a stampede,” he said.

“I could feel the heat almost straight away, but people weren’t reacting. There was a girl behind the bar who was more concerned with getting the cash register out.”

As he starting moving towards the exit, he noticed a man had fallen and was not picking himself up. Mr Hall tried to pull him along, but lost his grip when all the lights went out.

“It was pitch-black, it was burning my back, I put my hand behind me on my head, and on the way to the hospital, the skin was dropping off my hand.”

There was only one way down from the balcony that ringed the top level, and one way up from the toilets in the sub-ground floor, he said. All the windows were barred. “The flames spread very, very fast. It went straight along the ceiling.”

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