Another erroneous emergency alert went out early morning Friday, Jan. 10, after a mistaken alert was also sent Thursday afternoon, Jan. 9 — with both messages stoking resident fears amidst various raging wildfires.

Los Angeles County, in a statement posted on X, said it is aware of the mistaken alerts and working with FEMA to investigate. The county apologized and asked that people use AlertLA.org to see the latest warnings.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger expressed deep frustration at the false alerts, saying they caused fear and anger among community members scared that their neighborhood was facing an impending evacuation.

“They are on pins and needles thinking they are next,” Barger said at a Friday press conference.

She didn’t understand why, despite the technical challenges, the false alerts couldn’t be stopped:

“My question is, ‘Why can’t we turn it off?’ The answers we are getting are not satisfying,” she said. “Don’t think we are taking this lightly.”

Barger said the suggestion by county officials that people who get alerts should go to a webpage to verify that the alert is correct is not realistic in an emergency situation.

“I’m not going to tell people, ‘If you get it, just go on a website’,” she said.

Kevin McGowan, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services, said the messages were not being administered by a person.

“We have every technological specialist working to resolve this issue and to find the root cause,” McGowan said. “I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone. This is extremely frustrating, painful and scary, but these tools have saved lives during emergencies. Not receiving an alert can be a consequence of life and death.”

On Thursday, just before 4 p.m., people across the county received cellphone alerts ordering them to evacuate, even in areas unaffected by the ongoing fires.

It was sent shortly after the Kenneth fire erupted in the West Hills area by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The alert about evacuation warnings was only supposed to be sent to people near that fire. Instead, it ended up on cellphones throughout most of the county, including residents in the South Bay, the Westside, downtown Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley — even as far away as Orange County.

Fifteen minutes later, another alert was sent out by the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management asking residents to disregard the previous one, as it was only intended for the Kenneth fire, which erupted near West Hills and the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties earlier in the afternoon.

About 4 a.m. Friday, another bad alert: Again intended for people near the Kenneth fire burn, some people across the region received it, even in San Bernardino County.

“Whatever the cause, it is unacceptable and it is being addressed now,” said another supervisor, Lindsey Horvath. “We will be investigating what happened, how and why at every level.”

City News Service contributed to this report.