Evacuation Warning Alert Sent Across Orange County In Error

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — An emergency alert was sent across Los Angeles and Orange counties Thursday afternoon warning residents that their neighborhoods were subject to an evacuation warning was sent in error, the Orange County Fire Authority said.

The alert was sent countywide due to a technical error, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said. The alert was also sent in error widely across Orange County, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

A follow-up alert correcting the mistake was sent about 20 minutes later to LA County residents.

The alert was meant to be sent only to those within the immediate area of the Kenneth Fire, which broke out Thursday afternoon in the west San Fernando Valley.

The alert included a link to alertla.org, a county landing page for information about the fires burning in LA County. But the website may have failed to load for many users, likely due to the high number of people navigating to the site at the same time from the alert.