Two women who cooked with Meghan Markle escaped Grenfell fire

Two of the women who worked on a cookbook with Meghan Markle for the victims of Grenfell escaped from the tower inferno in which 72 perished, MailOnline can reveal.

Hiwot Dagnachew was on the fifth floor and saved the lives of her seven and five-year-old great nieces, Yohana and Liva Yohannes, and their mother Ms Mekonnen, 37, by phoning them on the 19th floor to warn them about the fire – giving them enough time to get out of the building.

As they made their way out of the West London disaster, they watched ten of their neighbours retreat back upstairs unable to continue.

Hiwot Dagnachew (left) and Munira Mahmud (right) escaped from the Grenfell Tower inferno

Meanwhile, Munira Mahmud, 34, her husband Mohammed Rasoul, 36, his father Ahmed Abdel-Rasoul, then aged 87, and their two children Mohammed, six, and 20-month-old Zahra Rasoul made their way down the stairs to the bottom of the tower to safety in June last year.

The women are two of the cooks in a new book supported by the Duchess of Sussex in her first solo charity project called Together, Our Community Cookbook, which will be available in stores from Thursday priced at £9.99.

Meghan – who has made secret trips to help the Hubb Community Kitchen volunteers responsible since January this year and has written the foreword – says of the kitchen: ‘It’s a place for women to laugh, cry and cook together’.

Ms Mekonnen – who has her aunt, one of the cooks Hiwot Dagnachew, to thank for her family surviving the tragedy, has told the Telegraph: ‘We were fast asleep and my phone rang – I’m so lucky it wasn’t on silent.

The Duchess of Sussex cooks with women in the Hubb Community Kitchen in West London

‘My aunt was trying to be calm but she was clearly panicking. She said there were flames outside her window and that we should get out.’

Ms Mahmud made her way down the stairs to the bottom of the tower to safety last year

She told how she put on her dressing gown, grabbed her children, trying to keep them ‘calm’ whilst in ‘complete shock’ and ran out into the corridor.

She told how it was ‘hard to breathe’, as she held Liva, five, under one arm and held Yohana’s hand and descended the stairs, while they were ‘coughing and the kids were screaming’.

People were getting ‘really, really scared’ and ‘running back up the stairs’, leaving her ‘tempted to go back but, I just couldn’t see myself being locked in the flat on the 19th floor with that fire, so I carried on. The girls were so heavy.’

Just as they were about to open an emergency fire exit a firefighter screamed at them to stop because that side of the building above was on fire. 

Ms Mekonnen couldn’t even finish her sentence as she wonders aloud: ‘If he hadn’t… I can’t believe we are alive.’

Meghan poses with women at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in West London

Ms Mahmud’s husband Mohammed has admitted he often ‘thinks back’ to that night when it took them all about 15 minutes to get to the bottom floor with his elderly father, telling GetWestLondon: ‘I thank God we got out early and we made it.’

He revealed that his wife’s best friend and his children’s friends passed away, as well as his friend’s mother.

He said of his friend: ‘Me and him, we had both been in the tower since birth.’

He told how all their closest friends were there and how he ‘prays’ that they’re going to be ‘reunited’ with them one day. 

Ms Mahmud wrote of her involvement with the book: ‘Last summer, we were placed in a hotel and I had no kitchen to cook for my family.

The Grenfell Tower disaster in West London on June 14 last year claimed the lives of 72 people

‘It was very emotional for me to get in the kitchen. The moment I started cooking I was in tears. I didn’t know why though. I was just excited to be back in the kitchen again.

‘Word started to spread – the mums from my son’s school came along and they told their friends, too. Soon there were women from different cultures all cooking, swapping recipes, talking and laughing together.’

She told how Meghan – photographed on the book’s front cover helping out – had been happy to pitch in, continuing: ‘She wore an apron. I can’t believe I made her wash rice!’

After the duchess found out that we could only use the kitchen twice a week due to funding, she mentioned, ‘How about sharing your recipes with other people?’

Ms Mahmud added: ‘And that’s how it happened.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk