More than two dozen people were inside the Creeslough supermarket, in the apartments above or immediately in front on the forecourt when Friday's explosion happened.
Many locals are wondering how anyone could have survived given the terrific scale of the damage.
But survivors and individuals on the scene within seconds have recounted details from inside the wrecked supermarket, revealing the impact on different parts of the building.
A staff member operating one of the tills survived as she found herself under the counter when the floors above collapsed downwards into the centre of the supermarket.
She was trapped under the rubble for approximately two hours before emergency crews were able to pull her out relatively unscathed.
Most of those at the rear of the store, at the deli counter, butchers and post office counter, survived even though the back of the building was nearly destroyed.
Some were able to walk out of the back of the building as locals rushed towards the scene. Others close to the front also survived.
From information gathered locally, those who died were in or close to the centre of the supermarket. But two of the victims were on the forecourt.
Garda Superintendent Liam Geraghty, over the weekend, said the more technical details of the investigation will now commence.
“The Garda investigation has now commenced following the completion of the search and rescue,” he said.
The investigation will centre in the first place on the cause of the initial explosion but also on the collapse.
Immediately above the supermarket was an apartment and on the second floor another attic-type accommodation. People were in the attic apartment at the time of the explosion and survived, according to local GP Dr Paul Stewart.
The investigation will look at the collapse of the two floors into the centre of the supermarket.
Local man Brian Dolan, on the scene within minutes, described stepping into the supermarket and coming across a young girl covered in cuts and bruises. She was just inside close to the ice cream machine.
"She wasn't as bad as others but she was very disorientated,” Mr Dolan told reporters. “All she wanted to do was go back and get her ice-cream. She must have been in the shop for ice-cream. I just lifted her up and brought her out.”
Jason Black, the high altitude mountaineer from Dunfanaghy, was walking towards the building when the explosion occurred. He was knocked back, dazed but otherwise uninjured. He was able to help other people towards safety, including a child.
He, like many others, went into the building and located three people in the rubble, alive. All he could do was comfort them by saying emergency crews were on their way.
Other reports describe how people had only just left the shop minutes earlier.
CCTV footage from just prior to the explosions shows a group of school children sitting on a nearby wall, some of them eating ice cream.
Dr Stewart, the local GP, has been speaking to some of those either treated at the scene or discharged from hospital, along with many others in the community. Six of the victims were patients of his at the Creeslough Health Centre where the Belfast-raised doctor has a practice.
"The local response was just brilliant. People were tearing at the rubble with the bare hands. People were going back into the building with bits falling down all the time. It was incredibly dangerous," he said.
From information the GP has gathered over the last number of days, many of the victims were in or close to the centre of the supermarket at the time of the collapse.
"The whole centre of the building collapsed into the shop," said Dr Stewart. "But people at the back of the shop, they were OK." He added people in the attic apartment also survived.
The force of the blast hurled large chunks of masonry right across the road, said Dr Stewart, who revealed he was only told there had been an accident and only fully realised its horrific scale when he arrived at the scene.
He said it was "a terrible night" waiting for news as at that point everybody knew who was missing. Three of the fatalities were found and removed from the building within about an hour, the last not until late Saturday morning.
Dr Stewart said the surgery was open over the weekend for people to drop in to comfort each other and to share stories.
He added: "The work for me starts now but this is going to take years to get over. We are facing into a rough week. But this is a strong community, one with depth."
