Until the night of 14th June 2017, Munira Mahmud lived on the fifth floor of Grenfell Tower with her family. Her best friend, Rania, lived on the 22nd.
On that fateful night, Munira woke after midnight to the sounds of people shouting and screaming ‘fire!’ Scooping up her two young children, who were barefoot and in their pyjamas, she made it down the five flights of stairs that were quickly filling up with thick, dark smoke and escaped the tower just before 1.30am. Her husband Mohammed and his father, who lived with the family and was suffering from dementia, followed closely behind them. At this point, Munira said she never imagined the fire would destroy the family’s flat, let alone the whole building.
The fire, however, which was caused by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor was the worst UK residential fire since World War II, burning for 60 hours and killing 72 people, including many children.
Munira’s best friend Rania and her young daughters were among the victims. The best friends had walked their children to school together the morning of the fire.
‘She had moved in a year and a half before the fire,’ says Munira, 39. ‘After I made it out of the tower, we spoke on the phone and I could hear her girls who were 4 and 3 in the background. I told her to get out, but she said the emergency services had told her to stay put because help was coming.’ Just before she died, Rania posted a video of herself to Facebook, saying a prayer.
‘It’s been six years since the fire, and while people tell you that time heals, the pain that goes right through my heart every time I think about it is still there,’ says Munira. ‘And I think about it all the time. You relive that day again and again.
‘The week of the anniversary is particularly hard. I’ve just met up with one of the survivors who lost their dad in the fire and they told me their mum has been crying for the past six years. The pain doesn’t go away. When the anniversary comes around people ask if you’re any better, but it doesn’t work like that.’
Munira and her family moved into a hotel, where they ended up staying for 19 months. ‘One day I went to the local mosque and asked if I could cook a meal in their kitchen for our nine year wedding anniversary, which we always celebrated with food. The manager said yes, and that as a survivor I could go there twice a week to cook.’
Others who had also been displaced by the fire began doing the same, and soon after the manager asked them if they could cook for a VIP. ‘I had no idea who it was, but then one day Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex walked in. She was so touched by what we were doing and asked why we only got together twice a week. When we explained it was due to funding, she suggested we put together a cookbook to raise funds for the community.'
The pain doesn't go away. People ask if you're any better, but it doesn't work like that
The Together: Our Community Cookbook, which contains over 50 recipes from women in the Grenfell community, contained a foreword by the duchess and reached the top of the book charts within hours.
‘Cooking helped me so much during that time,’ explains Munira. ‘I had tried talking therapy, counselling, but nothing worked for me. When I cooked I cried, but I didn’t know why, until I realised how therapeutic it was for me. I now do catering to support the community after the book, and my business is called kinamama.com.’
Munira was among many survivors who gave evidence into the public enquiry into the fire, which investigated the advice of the Fire Brigade who were found to be too late in advising residents to evacuate, and the councils who managed the building, which was found to be covered in unsafe cladding that caused the fire to spread so quickly. Later this year or early next, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide if any criminal charges will be brought.
Meanwhile, Munira and her family – the couple had their third child in 2021 – now live ten minutes away from the tower. ‘I asked to stay in the community,’ she explains. ‘Within three minutes of walking from my new house we see the tower, which is now a tall, black building shielded in white covers. They say that while salt in a wound hurts, it also helps it to heal, and my mentality is that the wound in my heart will heal sooner if I stay closer. And if we get justice for those in the building that night.'