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A firefighter watches the flames from the Palisades Fire burning homes on the Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Image Credits:Apu Gomes / Getty Images

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As wildfiresrage for the third consecutive daylight through parts of Los Angeles , now admit the Hollywood Hills , several neck of the woods have been forced to void for safety purposes . But on Thursday afternoon , a wildfire voiding alert was erroneously send out to the smartphone of every resident in Los Angeles County , a region with more than 9 million hoi polloi .

“ An evacuation order for resident near the Kenneth Fire currently burning in West Hills was erroneously cut Countywide , ” wrote LA County ’s prescribed account in apost on X. “ This alerting was only intended for residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills . ”

Everyone in my newsroom got this alert … in Ktown , in NoHo , in Century City , in Manhattan beach . Must have been sent in error , because there ’s no way.pic.twitter.com/M4MlNfxBId

Several Los Angeles residents post on social media that they received the button notice right around 4 p.m. PT , despite being in areas that were quite far from any active fire . The exigency alert interrupted a unrecorded broadcast on Fox LA , confusing the meteorologist on melodic line .

I have been informed the evacuation warning that many of us just received on our phones was erroneously issued countywide due to a technical error . A chastening will be issued shortly .

The smartphone pushing notification was issued countywide “ due to a technological mistake , ” according toLA county supervisor Janice Hahn , remark in a C. W. Post on X that a fudge factor will be sent short .

Smartphone makers allow government officials to send emergency push notifications to users based on their localization , a feature article that ’s particularly important for California residents when wildfire are hap . However , errors like this can unnecessarily get affright in an already trying situation .