People living in a tower block were left without power and water in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic in what one resident described as an “absolute nightmare”.

The power cut at Woolpack House, in Kettering Road, Enfield Lock, is thought to have been caused by a water leak that flooded power cables and damaged a fuse box.

It left people in the 13-storey building without power and water overnight on Tuesday, May 19.

Enfield’s Conservative Group called for a “full review” of the incident following claims the power cut could have been avoided if the leak had been spotted earlier.

Eyewitness Mark Bellas said it had been an “absolute nightmare” for residents, and one woman “had to be carried down from the eleventh floor by an ambulance team” during the incident.

Mr Bellas, who lives at Woolpack House, said: “In all honesty, it could have been avoided had they identified the leak a day earlier.

“The leak was spotted by caretaker. A contractor came out, and there was no reason at all not to find the leak. There would have been a different outcome had they done it.

“Water was leaking from the flat straight onto main power cables.

“It was at 7pm the first outage hit. We had four floors that had power, but everywhere lost the water – we were without water for the entire evening, and the lifts were not working.

“We got the council out pretty quickly. The leak was identified within half an hour of the people turning up on site.”

Mr Bellas said the water had turned a fuse box “into charcoal”. After the power outage, he said residents had been left with a noisy emergency generator, which he could hear from his flat at the other side of the block.

He added that the building had been affected by flooding before, putting the lifts out of action for six weeks.

And he said he had reported a leak in his own flat in November – but although contractors had taken photographs, he had not heard back from them. “They don’t spend any money on this building,” Mr Bellas said.

Cllr Lee David-Sanders (Conservative, Highlands) said: “What happened at Woolpack House was terrible. The whole fuse box has been turned to charcoal.

“There needs to be a full review of what occurred. It is clear that if council representatives had found the leak the first time they visited, the incident might not have been as bad it was.”

Council leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan (Labour, Jubilee) said: “We are incredibly sympathetic to the residents of Woolpack House for the disruption caused by the recent power outage.

“Enfield Council acted immediately to address the situation and installed a generator to restore the electricity and water supply to all affected properties within 12 hours – as well as ensuring a passenger lift servicing Woolpack House was fully operational. Officers also spoke to most of residents at Woolpack House that same day and were able to carry out an additional 18 repairs on request.”

Cllr Caliskan said that in February, the council announced funding of £51 million to improve the condition of council homes, but the Tories had voted against the investment programme.

Tory leader Cllr Joanne Laban said the Labour Group had had a decade to regenerate Woolpack House during its control of the council.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at 8:19pm on 19 May to reports of a person unwell on Kettering Road, Enfield.

“We dispatched an ambulance crew to the scene.

“We treated a person and took them to hospital.”