Fire Evacuation Alert Mistakenly Sent To All 9.6 Million L.A. County Residents

An alert was mistakenly sent to Los Angeles County residents Thursday by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

OAN Staff Sophia Flores
5:50 PM – Thursday, January 9, 2025

A wireless emergency evacuation alert that was meant to be sent only to residents in the Woodland Hills area was “inadvertently” sent to residents across Los Angeles County, sparking panic.

Shortly after the alert was sent Thursday, County Supervisor Janice Hahn announced a technical error to the X.

We have received reports that the evacuation alert that many of us just received on our cell phones was incorrectly issued for the entire county due to a technical error.

A fix will be issued soon.

— Janice Hahn (@SupJaniceHahn) January 10, 2025

Minutes after the alert was sent, additional emergency alerts appeared on residents' cell phones. A second alert was announced: “Ignore the final evacuation warning.”

The Kenneth Fire is currently threatening the Woodland Hills area. Woodland Hills is near Calabasas and Tarzana.

Officials in other Los Angeles County cities also quickly announced on social media that the alert was not intended for their areas.

All residents of Los Angeles County received a radio emergency alert regarding evacuation of the county. There is no latest evacuation information for Santa Monica. Evacuations in Santa Monica remain unchanged. visit https://t.co/BTF6UsEbYG As information.

— City of Santa Monica (@santamonicacity) January 10, 2025

As of Thursday night, about 180,000 people were under evacuation orders in Los Angeles County. The Palisades Fire, Kenneth Fire, Eaton Fire, Hearst Fire, Lydia Fire, and Sunset Fire are impacting Los Angeles County.

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