Devastating wildfires in Los Angeles have claimed at least 10 lives and forced over 180000 people to evacuate. The situation worsened when a mistaken evacuation alert was sent to nearly 10 million residents, causing confusion and heightened anxiety.
The alert, issued on Friday morning to Beverly Hills, was confirmed as a false alarm by city officials, assuring residents that there was no immediate threat.
Wrong evacuation alert sent to LA county
On Thursday around 4 a.m. local time, Beverly Hills residents received a warning to evacuate, from the LA County Fire Department. The panic was immediate, with some even sharing the alarming message in real-time during video calls, NBC reports. But officials “confirmed this was another error.”
In a post shared on X, it said, “There are no evacuations currently affecting BH.”
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Then on Thursday afternoon as residents were still reeling from the devastation caused by the series of wildfires, their phones again buzzed with an alert to evacuate. A text warning was sent to millions of people, including those far from the wildfire areas.
{{/usCountry}}Then on Thursday afternoon as residents were still reeling from the devastation caused by the series of wildfires, their phones again buzzed with an alert to evacuate. A text warning was sent to millions of people, including those far from the wildfire areas.
{{/usCountry}}A second message followed, clarifying the warning was intended only for specific areas near the Kenneth Fire in Calabasas, Agoura Hills, and West Hills of Los Angeles.
Error affected nearly 10 Million people
The evacuation warning was mistakenly sent to nearly 10 million people, far beyond the intended areas. Officials, including Kevin McGowan from the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, expressed regret for the confusion.
“We understand that these wildfires have created great anxiety, hardship and distress among our residents, and we are committed to sharing accurate information,” he said in the statement according to NBC.
McGowan confirmed that the right zones had been selected for the alert, and the issue was not human error. The problem was linked to a software glitch, which officials are now troubleshooting.