A blaze in a shed which killed a fireman was started deliberately, the person who discovered the fire told an inquest today.
Father-of-five Joe McCloskey, 50, plunged into the flaming hotel storehouse after the roof which he was standing on collapsed in November 2003 in Limavady, Co Derry.
General manager Willis McLaughlin said it was arson.
Fireman Stephen Loughlin, who was helping the victim hammer holes in the roof at the time said Mr McCloskey suffered horrific burns.
"Bits of his clothes were burnt to him, he still had part of his boots on," he told the Londonderry hearing.
"As I lifted his leg I felt skin come off in my hands."
The bar store at the Gorteen House Hotel contained 25,000 boxes of matches and a gas cylinder and it spiralled rapidly out of control.
Fire crews were attempting to break holes in the building to allow heat to escape.
Mr Loughlin recalled: "I became aware of what I can only describe as a shadow falling through the roof and all at once being aware of the flames coming up through the roof.
"I got up off my knees and onto my feet and looked at the area (where Mr McCloskey had been working) in disbelief."
Mr McLaughlin, who attempted to battle the flames with a fire extinguisher, said the alarm had been raised when a power failure stopped the water in the nightclub.
He added that fuses had been ripped from the wall of the nearby boiler room, which he had inspected minutes before the fire broke out.
"The store was not on fire when I walked back into the nightclub. When I got out it was… heavy, heavy smoke.
"It did not start accidentally."
Mr McCloskey, from Station Road, Dungiven, had worked as a part-time firefighter for more than 25 years.
His wife, Marie, recalled hearing the devastating news as she arrived at Altnagelvin Hospital.
"He did not want to be sedated until I arrived," she wept.
The victim died in hospital on November 2, the day after the accident.
Mr McCloskey was the first fireman killed on duty in the North for almost 10 years.
A minute's silence was held in New York and at fire stations across the UK in his memory.
Several colleagues were in the packed courtroom and the inquest is expected to run for another three days.