Some Los Angeles County residents received "erroneous" fire evacuation alerts, officials say
Some residents in Los Angeles County received a wireless emergency evacuation alert on Friday, but county officials confirmed it was an "erroneous" message.
In a social media post, LA County officials said they were aware of the messages and apologized for the disruption.
"We are working with FEMA to investigate the issue, and for the most current status of evacuation orders and warnings please review the map of evacuations on Alertla.org," officials wrote.
At a news conference Friday morning, Director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management Kevin McGowan addressed the error and said there is a level of frustration and fear surrounding the alerts being sent to residents.
"First of all I want to clarify this is not human-driven. There is no one sitting at a desk right now initiating emergency alerts. I want to restate that, right now as these alerts are being issued they are not being activated or initiated by a person," McGowan said.
He added that it is important for residents to keep their alert notifications. He said people should not disable them.
The city of Beverly Hills put out a message to its residents saying some may have received an evacuation alert around 4 a.m. from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. But clarified, there were no evacuations affecting the area. The city of Torrance also addressed the alerts some of its residents received.
"The emergency notification from the Los Angeles County Fire Department this morning regarding the evacuation warning has no effect on the City of Torrance. It was for Kenneth Fire only. There is no evacuation order in Torrance at this time," the city of Torrance said.
On Thursday, residents across Los Angeles County received a similar emergency evacuation alert which the county said was only for residents being affected by the Kenneth Fire.
When asked by reporters on Friday, why the issue seems to persist McGowan said his office is working with state and federal partners to establish where the error is occurring when an alert is initiated to when it goes out. He mentioned that there is a common phenomenon called "bleed over," where a cellphone that is in a different area than the intended zone is receiving the message from a cellular tower.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said her office is not taking the issue lightly and is committed to getting to the bottom of it.
Officials urge Los Angeles County residents to monitor the Alertla.org website for the latest information regarding evacuations.
