ALMOST a year since their homes were destroyed in a Valentines Day explosion, residents are finally hoping for some answers next week.

The blast ripped through a block of flats in Gibbs Crescent, West Oxford on February 14 last year, killing 46-year-old Guido Schuette.

An inquest into the death of Mr Schuette, who is thought to have stored fuel in his middle floor flat and caused the explosion, will begin at Oxford Coroner’s Court on Wednesday.

Residents who lost everything are planning to attend the court hearings in the hope that they will finally find out the details of what happened.

Annie May, 54, lived in flat seven, and narrowly avoided being killed when she was delayed returning home.

She says she repeatedly asked the police and A2 Dominion, the housing provider that owns the flats, to do something after being racially abused by Mr Schuette for 14 years.

She has now been rehomed off the Slade in Headington but says she is ‘still a nervous wreck’.

She added: “You have to live with it but I am still bitter to be honest.

“I have had to start again and it has taken me a long time to settle.

“I don’t feel I have been given much support, I was left to just get on with it.

“I hope now we can finally get some answers.”

The explosion, as well as destroying three flats, left eight others uninhabitable.

Work to dismantle the remains of the properties was completed late last year and the housing association is planning to build new homes.

Habiba Gudal, 40, also believes she would be dead if she had been sitting in her bedroom or garden in flat two at the time of the blast.

The mother-of-two, who now lives in Barns Road, said: “Any bang or noise still makes me jump, it does not go away.

“I don’t know what to expect from the inquest, we will have to wait and see but hopefully it gives us some closure.”

Oxford City Councillor Susanna Pressel, who represents the area, is writing to the city’s MPs to call for better treatment for the affected residents.

She said many ‘have still not been able to put that night behind them’ and said some of the ‘most pressing’ questions, including why Mr Schuette was not moved away or stopped from abusing neighbours, would not be answered by the inquest.

A2 Dominion and Thames Valley Police declined to comment.