Millions of people in Los Angeles were mistakenly sent an evacuation alert due to a fire

Residents were already tense as more fires ripped through the Los Angeles region, traumatizing millions who felt there was no end in sight in four days.

Then on Thursday afternoon came another push in the form of a text message.

That message was mistakenly sent to every cell phone in the county — home to about 10 million people — warning that the fire was approaching and they should prepare to evacuate.

Rebecca Alvarez-Ptitt was on a work video call when her phone started blaring.

“There is an EVACUATION ALERT for 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 witnessing in real time,” she said.

She and her colleagues began to investigate and try to find out if they were in immediate danger.

Immediate relief came in the form of a corrected warning telling them to ignore the warning, but that was soon replaced by renewed anger, she said.

“We’re all on pins and needles and sitting anxiously by our phones, staring at the TV and the radio on, trying to be as informed as possible because there wasn’t a good system in place,” Ms Alvarez said. -Petit, who lives in West Los Angeles.

“And then there’s this. It looks like you must be joking.’

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

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

Officials acknowledged some of the complaints, ranging from hydrants drying up, which hampered firefighting efforts, to issues of firefighting preparedness and investment.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass returned to the city from a pre-planned trip to Africa to find the city on fire. On Thursday, she faced intense questions about the region’s preparedness, her leadership in this crisis and the water problems that have let down firefighters.

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

Like other officials, she stressed that the fires may have spread Tuesday because of strong winds — the same winds that prevented planes from dropping water or fire retardant on the flames. She said the city’s water systems and nearby fire hydrants are not designed to put out thousands of acres of fire.

She noted that there will be reviews of how the incident unfolded, and how officials and departments handled it.

“If lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will definitely do an evaluation to see what worked and what didn’t work and to fix or hold any agency, department, individual accountable,” she said.

“Right now I’m focused on life and houses.”

The unfolding disaster turned into a need to understand why it happened and how it turned into the most devastating fire in Los Angeles history.

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

He and his neighbor quickly disposed of the embers that fell on their houses from the Eaton fire and ignited the grass.

Then the hose ran dry.

He watched his neighbors’ house in Altadena catch fire. Then there was a roar – the house next door was on fire and sounded as if it had exploded. He had to leave.

As he drove away, he watched as the fire engulfed his garage.

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

He recalled seeing firefighters that night — when the community was burning — sitting in their trucks, unable to help.

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

Some experts say the water shortage is caused by unprecedented demand, not mismanagement.

“The problem is that the scale of the disaster is so large that thousands of firefighters and hundreds of fire engines are working on water,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the California Institute of Water Resources, told the BBC.

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

Other neighbors shared their view that the state was not prepared, despite regularly seeing devastating fires.

Hipolito Cisneros, who surveyed the remains of his now-destroyed home, said utilities in the area have been in need of an upgrade for years.

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

On the street, Fernando González helped his brother sort through the ruins of his house for 15 years.

He noted that his own home in Santa Clarita — about a 45-minute drive away in Los Angeles County — is also threatened by various wildfires.

“We’ve just been on high alert,” he said. – You know, it’s all around us.