A peaceful Southampton neighbourhood was rocked on the evening of May 2 by a violent explosion in an apartment building, which took the lives of a married couple and sent three others to hospital.

The blast extensively damaged the building at Hilltop Court, causing much of the structure to collapse and leaving neighbours shaken physically and emotionally.

Allan Doughty, who lives near by, said he was playing guitar on his porch at 8.48pm when he heard a "huge boom", which shook the ground and rattled the windows.

He went to the scene where he met a neighbour who told him she had pulled two people from the rubble.

Despite the rescue efforts, officials later confirmed the death of 49-year-old Oscar Mascarinas, a father of three and long-standing worker at Aberfeldy Nurseries.

His death was followed days later by death of his wife, 50-year-old Jove Mascarinas, who succumbed to injuries suffered in the explosion.

The deaths of the well-liked Filipino couple sparked dozens of tributes.

While other residents of the building escaped with their lives, the blast took a heavy toll.

Shane Francis said he had lost everything in the explosion “apart from the clothes on my back”.

Mr Francis had returned to his upper-level apartment in the block only a few moments before the explosion after taking a friend’s dog, Lulu, for a walk.

Mr Francis said: “Lulu was at my feet when I heard this huge ‘boom’. Then the floor beneath me just seemed to open up and fall away and my ceiling started coming down on top of me.”

Mr Francis instinctively curled into a ball and protected his head as he fell through the collapsing floor.

When he finally came to a stop he was at ground level and covered in debris.

“I was totally disoriented. It was completely dark as obviously all the lights had gone out so I couldn’t see anything. I also had some concrete debris on top of me, but I was able to get that off,” he said.

Mr Francis said that in the wake of the explosion he feared he had lost the dog, who had been next to him when the floor began to fall away beneath him.

However he said that two days after the collision, he and the dog’s owner Alex Jones found Lulu alive in the rubble.

Ms Jones said: “It was such a relief for us and Lulu – she just seemed so happy to see us.”

Stanley Thompson, who remained in hospital for more than a month after the explosion, said he was preparing to take a bath when the blast happened.

“I got my bath ready and was on my way out of the bedroom,” he said. “I took one step more and the wall came down and then my ceiling, my son-in-law’s floor all came down on top of that.

“There was a big ‘whoomp’ and everything went pitch black. Everything was eerily quiet.

“You never think of this as a possibility. You don’t think it will happen to you.”

In the face of tragedy, members of the public came together with a series of fundraising campaigns launched to support those who were impacted by the blast.

Students from Elliot Primary donated $750 to the Bermuda Red Cross to support efforts to assist the families affected by the explosion.

Dianne Gordon, disaster manager with the Bermuda Red Cross, praised the actions of the students to help a family in need.

“This warms my heart to see students and Elliot School come together like this,” she said.

“We know Bermudians are extremely generous in times of disasters or emergencies but to see these young people coming together and giving this sum is a huge message.”

While it was speculated in the days after the blast that the explosion was caused by a gas leak and a fire service report has been completed, the Bermuda Police Service said in December that the investigation was still ongoing.