What started like any other Friday in Creeslough ended with a community changed forever and ordinary lives torn apart.
The service station had been filled with school children getting their Friday treats an hour before the explosion.
A father and young daughter who later stopped here for sweets were among those who died.
Others spoke of how they were just minutes away from heading to the shop themselves when the sound of the blast stopped them in their tracks.
They are now asking themselves what if they had made the journey minutes earlier.
It is reported that another of the deceased was a man who just ran in to use the ATM.
After these local lives were turned upside-down in an instant, their neighbours and friends then became central to the rescue and recovery effort
Bernard Doherty was one of those who came to the scene to assist.
He told RTÉ's Saturday with Katie Hannon that they tried to clear the rubble and pull people to safety.
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"It was a local shop, it was the epicentre of the town," he said.
He told of local people who brought tractors and lorries to the scene to try and help, he added.
Mr Doherty said that both adrenaline and instinct kicked in when teams arrived to assist and that people went into "survival mode" to both help as many people as they could, but also to comprehend the severity of what had unfolded.
Yesterday the people of Creeslough leapt to action in response to this tragedy.
Today what happened is starting to sink in.
This community is so small that the impact is almost impossible to escape.
Most people know those who have died. Some families have lost more than one member.
The lives lost were remembered at a mass in Creeslough this morning, where locals spoke of their disbelief and grief.
Another service will be held this evening and will be attended by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who is travelling to the scene of the tragedy.
'Shocked silence as the sun rose'
As day broke over the village, the sunrise shed light on a devastating scene.
Inside the garda tape and barriers, dozens of emergency service personnel gathered closely, surveying and working on the scene.
Two emergency responders were above it in a cherry picker using lights to peer down on the wreckage below.
The carcass of what was once an apartment block is visible - the front of the building was ripped away leaving a wall exposed.
Two picture frames and a lampshade are still in place, but there's no floor, windows or walls.
A mechanical arm has been moving constantly back and forth, its claw filled with rubble as it dumps it into a nearby truck.
Emergency personnel come and go.
They look tired, some are covered in dust, and all wear an expression that indicates the difficult things they have witnessed.
Fire engines are parked in driveways, paramedic cars are parked in fields.
At one house outside the cordon, the windows in the front door are shattered.
Early this morning, a local woman walked to the cordon and stood quietly crying.
When she sobbed, the local garda embraced her and held her for a time.
Another local man, who did not want to be named, emerges from the cordon. He's one of a number of local volunteers helping at the scene, and has been here since yesterday afternoon when the news first emerged.
The recovery operation goes on.
