A 71-YEAR-OLD Falmouth woman was surviving without central heating or hot water yesterday after her boiler failed seven days ago and water flooded her house.

After attempts to stem the flood, Ena Eva, of Conway Road, dialled the 24-hour emergency call-out numbers but found no-one was prepared to come out to help her immediately.

"It's disgusting, I don't expect to have all this worry - I can't sleep, I can't do anything," she said.

An engineer eventually called on Saturday, but did not have the correct replacement part. He left Mrs Eva with just a cold water supply and turned her gas back on.

Yesterday, Mrs Eva was still waiting for repairs to be carried out and having to survive on cold water and a tiny gas heater during a cold snap.

The boiler had been installed through EAGA, under the Government scheme Warmfront, which has now launched a full investigation to see what went wrong and whether the problem was the fault of the installer or the manufacturer.

Sam Robinson, network liaison officer in Devon and Cornwall for EAGA, said: "We take things like this very seriously at the EAGA Partnership and we are working very hard to make sureSam Robinson, network liaison officer in Devon and Cornwall for EAGA, said: "We take things like this very seriously at the EAGA Partnership and we are working very hard to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen."

Khaled Hussain, for Vaillant, the boiler's manufacturers, said the company would be investigating the matter.

The Falmouth pensioner had been watching television at 7pm when she thought there was a sudden shower of rain outside. When she went to investigate, her reception room was already flooded.

She said: "It was literally gushing down - I phoned a friend who thankfully came round and switched off the water and gas."

Using all the towels she could, Mrs Eva tried to fight the water but it still went through into the kitchen and lounge.

Mrs Eva phoned the emergency number straight away but only the next morning, when she began phoning around again, did she get anywhere.

Vaillant is still trying to obtain the part needed to repair the boiler and Mrs Eva is having to use a small gas heater to try to keep warm.