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The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent another erroneous emergency alert early morning Friday, Jan. 10, after a mistaken alert was also sent Thursday afternoon, Jan. 9, with both messages stoking resident fears amidst various raging wildfires.
The county, in a statement posted on X, said it is aware of the mistaken alerts and working with FEMA to investigate. The county also apologized and asked that people use AlertLA.org to see the latest warnings.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger expressed deep frustration at the false alerts, saying they caused fear and anger among community members scared that their neighborhood is facing an impending evacuation.
“They are on pins and needles thinking they are next,” Barger said at a Friday press conference.
She didn’t understand why, despite the technical challenges, the false alerts couldn’t be stopped:
“My question is, ‘Why can’t we turn it off? The answers we are getting are not satisfying,” she said. “Don’t think we are taking this lightly.”
Barger said the suggestion by county officials that people who get the alerts got to a webpage to verify the alert is correct is not realistic in an emergency situation.
“I’m not going to tell people, ‘If you get it, just go on a website.”
Kevin McGowan, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services, said the messages were not being administered by a person.
“We have every technological specialist working to resolve this issue and to find the root cause,” McGowan said. “I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone. This is extremely frustrating, painful and scary, but these tools have saved lives during emergencies. Not receiving an alert can be a consequence of life and death.”
On Thursday, just before 4 p.m., people across the county received cell phone alerts ordering them to evacuate, even in areas unaffected by the ongoing fires.
Fifteen minutes later, another alert was sent out by the the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management asking residents to disregard the previous one, as it was only intended for the Kenneth fire, which erupted near West Hills bordering Los Angeles and Ventura counties earlier in the afternoon.
“Whatever the cause, it is unacceptable and it is being addressed now,” said another supervisor, Lindsey Horvath. “We will be investigating what happened, how and why at every level.”
Said another supervisor, Lindsey Horvath: “Whatever the cause, it is unacceptable and it is being addressed now. We will be investigating what happened, how and why at every level.”
County of Los Angeles Supervisor for the Fourth District Janice Hahn issued a statement calling for the Office of Emergency Management to solve this issue by Friday evening and suggested the emergency alert system be disabled until the cause is found.
“Now more than ever we need to know that we can depend on our public information systems to keep people safe,” Hahn said. “That hasn’t been the case last night and this morning, and I’m frustrated too.”
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