Anger after fire evacuation warning mistakenly sent to millions in LA

Residents were already on edge as more fires ripped through the Los Angeles area, traumatizing millions of people who believed there was no end in sight after four days.

Then on Thursday afternoon came another jolt in the form of a text alert.

This was mistakenly sent to every mobile phone in the county – home to about 10 million people – warning that the fire was close and they should prepare to evacuate.

Rebecca Alvarez-Petty was on a work video call when her phone started ringing.

“An EVACUATION ALERT has been issued in your area,” the text message said.

The sound echoed around her as each of her colleagues received the same startling message.

“It was like a massive panic that I was watching in real time,” she said.

She and colleagues began to investigate and try to see if they were in immediate danger.

Immediate relief came in the form of a corrected signal telling them to ignore the warning, but that soon gave way to newfound anger, she said.

“We’re all on pins and needles and anxiously sitting by our phones, staring at the TV, listening to the radio – trying to stay as informed as possible because there was no good system,” said Ms. Alvarez-Petit, who lives in West Los Angeles.

“And then this. It’s like — you’ve got to be kidding me.”

The death toll from the wildfires continues to rise, with at least 10 people known to have died and the number likely to rise.

For many, anxiety about saving lives and property has turned into a sense of frustration in dealing with fires.

Officials have acknowledged some of the complaints, from dry hydrants hampering firefighting efforts to questions about fire mitigation preparedness and investment.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass returned to the city from a previously planned trip to Africa to find it in flames. She faced intense questions Thursday about the region’s preparedness, her leadership in this crisis and the water problems that have thwarted firefighters.

“Was I disappointed by it? Of course,” Mayor Bass said, responding to a question about water issues and whether the area is adequately prepared. She noted that this was an “unprecedented event”.

Like other officials, she stressed that the fires were able to spread Tuesday because of strong winds — the same winds that prevented planes from dropping water or fire retardant on the flames. She said city water systems and neighborhood fire hydrants are not built to handle putting out thousands of acres of fires.

She noted there will be reviews of how the incident unfolded, which will examine how officers and agencies handled it.

“When lives are saved and homes are saved, we’re going to evaluate to see what worked and what didn’t work and correct or hold every agency, department, individual accountable,” she said.

“My focus right now is on lives and homes.”

The unfolding disaster became a necessity to understand why this happened and how it escalated into the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history.

When one of the five wildfires now burning in Los Angeles County approached Larry Villeskas’ home Tuesday, he grabbed the only tool he could — a garden hose.

He and his neighbor made quick work of the embers that fell on their homes from Ethan’s fire and set the grass on fire.

The hose then ran dry.

He watched as his neighbors’ home in Altadena caught fire. Then there was a boom – a nearby house was on fire and it sounded like it had exploded. He had to go.

As he drove away, he saw the fire engulfing his garage.

“If we had water pressure, we would have been able to fight it,” said Mr Villeskas, standing in front of the charred remains of his home.

He recalled seeing firefighters that night — while the community burned — sitting in their trucks, unable to help.

“I remember my rage. It was like ‘do something’ but they can’t – there’s no water pressure,” he said. “It’s just maddening. How could this happen?”

Some experts said the water shortage was due to unprecedented demand, not mismanagement.

“The problem is that the scale of the disaster is so huge that there are thousands of firefighters and hundreds of fire engines pumping water,” Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the California Institute of Water Resources, told the BBC.

“After all, only so much water can flow through the pipes at one time.”

Other neighbors shared their feeling that the state is unprepared, even though they regularly see devastating fires.

Ippolito Cisneros, who surveyed the remains of his now-destroyed home, said utilities in the area have needed improvements for years.

“We’ve lived here 26 years and we’ve never seen it tested,” he says of the fire hydrant at the end of his block that failed to draw water when it was most needed.

Down the street, Fernando Gonzalez helped his brother sift through the rubble of his home of 15 years.

He noted that his own home in Santa Clarita — about 45 minutes away in Los Angeles County — has also been threatened by a different set of wildfires.

“We were just on high alert,” he said. “It’s all around us, you know.”