In a statement on X hours after evacuation orders and an alarm sound were inadvertently sent to citizens’ cellphones throughout Los Angeles County and beyond, the city of Beverly Hills acknowledged that an evacuation alert had been sent to residents in error Friday morning.
Residents of Beverley Hills received “another evacuation alert from the LA County Fire Department” at around 4 a.m. local time, but authorities “confirmed this was another error,” according to the post on X.
The city stated, “BH is not currently impacted by any evacuations.”
Around 4 p.m. local time on Thursday, millions of individuals, including those far from areas where flames are out of control, received a text message warning.
Part of the text message said, “An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued in your area.” It buzzed loudly as it arrived.
Following the first advisory, a second one was issued, advising people to ignore it and clarifying that it was intended just for those in the vicinity of the Kenneth Fire, a brand-new brush fire that broke out Thursday afternoon.
According to a statement from Kevin McGowan, director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, this warning was specifically meant for people living in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles and the Calabasas and Agoura Hills communities.
Rather, McGowan said, it was accidentally distributed to almost 10 million people.
He said in the statement, “We are committed to sharing accurate information, and we understand that these wildfires have caused great anxiety, hardship, and distress among our residents.”
During live broadcast on Thursday, McGowant told NBC Los Angeles over the phone that the alert’s appropriate zones were chosen correctly and that they are currently examining the program and debugging. He pointed out that other signals had been sent appropriately throughout the fires and windstorm.
“At this time, we do not know what led to that error. McGowan assured the station that it wasn’t a human error and that the right zones had been started. In order to troubleshoot it, we are working.
The false message is likely to have created panic and terror at a time when many people in the greater Los Angeles area are already feeling nervous and afraid due to the fires that have destroyed entire communities and consumed tens of thousands of acres.
A few recipients vented their annoyance on social media.
One user on X remarked, “My entire area just received an evacuation Amber alert, which turned out to be for West Hills, not Beverly Hills.” Really? As if our concern wasn’t already overwhelming us.
Another X user stated, “I received a phone alert for an evacuation warning due to a fire that was more than 20 miles away in DTLA.” The minor technical errors will exacerbate the situation.
The continuous flames have resulted in the evacuation of about 180,000 people. Authorities said the exact number of fatalities is yet unknown, but at least six individuals have perished.