Naomi Li, 32, and Lydia Liao, 23, were on the 22nd floor of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower when it caught fire in the early hours of June 14.

The women are the last known survivors from their floor of the apartment complex. Fourteen other residents – including five children – who lived on the same floor are believed to have died in the blaze.

At least 12 residents who lived on the highest floor of the block are dead or missing.

The blaze has so far claimed 80 lives, but only 18 victims have been formally identified. The Metropolitan Police Service fear an exact death toll will not be known until 2018.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Naomi told of the moment she phoned her husband, Lee Li-Chapman – away on business at the time of the fire – to say her final goodbyes, fearing she wouldn’t be able to escape the inferno.

Naomi, from Taiwan, said she smelt smoke around 1am as she was preparing to go to bed. When she dialled emergency services, she was told there was a fire in her building and to stay inside her apartment.

After 20 minutes, neighbours on her floor began coming out of their flats.

"One, who lived next to me, said the fire had spread to their kitchen," she said.

"We were just in our pyjamas. We were invited into a family's flat on the other side of the building as they had clean air."

At 2:30am, Naomi said there was still no sign of firefighters on her floor. The smoke was so thick that fire crews were continually forced to turn back on their way to the upper floors of the Tower.

At 3:06am, Naomi called emergency services again, and was told she needed to leave the building.

The family whose apartment she and her cousin were seeking refuge in decided to wait for rescue.

She called her husband - who was watching the terror unfold on live television from the other side of the world in Kuala Lumpur - to say goodbye.

"We are going down, but I don't know if we will make it or not," she told him. "I love you."

The two women took "one last breath of the air from the window " before stepping out of the apartment.

"We couldn't see anything through the dense smoke, just very blurred lights. I tried to call Lydia on every floor to make sure she was behind me," Naomi said.

"Lydia fell over a body and screamed. I told her to get up and that we needed to focus on getting down.

"I kept telling her and myself that they weren't bodies and were someone's clothes. That was probably the saddest experience in our lives. I was just determined we would get out."

On the fifth or sixth floor, Naomi and Lydia, almost on the point of collapse, were met by firefighters and were escorted out of the building.

"We sat by a tree and were given oxygen by paramedics. It was the first time we saw the outside of the building and the extent of the fire.

"We saw where we would have been on the 22nd floor and it was engulfed in flames.

"I think we were some of the last people to come out by foot that night. Most people after us were being taken out on stretchers. Thirty seconds or a minute later and I don't think we would have made it."

She finally called her husband to let him know she had, somehow, made it out alive.

Friends of the couple have set up a crowdfunding page to raise money for the pair to replace their possessions, almost all of which were lost in the fire.

Naomi and Lee's neighbours, including young children and families, are still missing.

"I count myself lucky every day," Naomi said of her survival.

"I will always be haunted by the images I saw that night."