Thousands of Los Angeles County residents already on edge due to the deadly and destructive wildfires burning across the Southland were given an unexpected fright Thursday when a widescale emergency alert was mistakenly sent out to cell phones across the county telling people they were under a wildfire evacuation warning.
The alert, however, was in error. Local emergency management officials said the alert was intended only for residents near the Kenneth Fire that erupted Thursday afternoon near West Hills.
The alert was issued around 4 p.m. and was received by people in the South Bay, the Westside, downtown Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, even as far away as Orange County.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn quickly posted a statement on X saying the warning “was mistakenly issued countywide due to a technical error” and “a correction will be issued shortly.” The message was only intended “for the areas impacted by the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills.”
A correction message was sent out countywide about 15 minutes later.
Late Thursday afternoon, Kevin McGowan, director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, released a statement.
“An evacuation order for residents near the Kenneth Fire currently burning in West Hills was mistakenly issued to nearly 10 million County residents along with some residents of neighboring counties. This warning was intended only for residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills and those within the West Hills community of Los Angeles. We understand that these wildfires have created great anxiety, hardship and distress among our residents, and we are committed to sharing accurate information.”
He urged people looking for updates on the wildfires currently burning in L.A. County, including evacuation information, to visit lacounty.gov/emergency.
Several government agencies quickly issued statements to reassure residents that the message was an error.
“There are no evacuations for the city of West Hollywood,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s West Hollywood Station said on social media. “We understand the confusion caused by the emergency alert. We would like to reiterate, there is no evacuations for the city of West Hollywood.”
The Palos Verdes Police Department issued a statement assuring people the message “was in error,” as did Santa Monica city officials who stressed there was no change to evacuation orders and warnings in that city, despite the alert.