Emergency alerts sent to millions of mobile phones across England and Wales sparked widespread panic on Friday after warning residents against lighting wildfires.
The loud siren sounded across devices throughout both nations, warning members of the public against lighting anything that could spark a fire, including campfires, fireworks and BBQs.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham instructed the public to take the emergency warning "seriously" following the sudden broadcast on Friday.
However, the government faces backlash after angry members of the public said the Emergency Alert caused "needless panic", with several residents reporting that they received the siren more than once.
Emergency alert systems use cell broadcast technology to deliver urgent public safety notifications directly to mobile devices without requiring user phone numbers, bypassing silent modes to ensure immediate public reach.
Hawaii false missile alarm
The incident follows several major blunders in emergency warning systems over recent years, most famously when a false nuclear attack notification was issued in Hawaii.
On the morning of 13 January 2018, more than a million people across Hawaii received an Emergency Alert on their phones reading: "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL".
Fearing an impending nuclear attack, terrified residents and tourists fled to emergency shelters and into their garages for safety.
On the H-3, a major highway north of Honolulu, vehicles sat empty after drivers left them on the road to run into a nearby tunnel for shelter.
The false alarm occurred at 8:07am during an internal drill timed to coincide with a shift handover, after a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee "pushed the wrong buttons".
Government agencies corrected the mistake on Twitter, now known as X, 12 minutes later. However, it took 38 minutes for a second phone alert to be issued confirming to residents that it was a false alarm.
Emergency management experts explained that the system contained no pre-formatted template for an alert retraction, meaning the all-clear message had to be manually entered and activated by operators.
Vern Miyagi, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, apologized publicly following the disastrous error.
"I deeply apologize for the trouble and heartbreak that we caused today," Miyagi said.
Agency officials acknowledged the systemic failure during emergency operations.
"We've spent the last few months trying to get ahead of this whole threat, so that we could provide as much notification and preparation to the public. We made a mistake," Miyagi added.
Hawaii is an island state in the Pacific Ocean where emergency management agencies maintain early warning systems for natural disasters and defense threats.
Los Angeles County evacuation error
Technical blunders also sparked chaos in California during the Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025, when 9.6 million residents were mistakenly ordered to evacuate.
The entire population of Los Angeles County received an emergency evacuation alert that was actually intended only for residents in the West Hills area.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn addressed the public on X shortly after the alert went out, stating that the warning "was mistakenly issued" due to a technical error and was meant only for areas "impacted by the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills."
"I have been informed the evacuation warning that many of us just received on our phones was mistakenly issued countywide due to a technical error. A correction will be issued shortly," Hahn wrote on X.
Furious residents quickly criticized local leadership on social media following the mistake.
"Your failures will be remembered in history textbooks. Resign. This is going to get people killed," one user wrote.
"Thanks for freaking out all of Los Angeles County. Didn't need this while all of us and family are on edge already," another user commented. A third user added: "You incompetent buffoons."
Los Angeles County is the largest county in the United States by population, covering urban centers and mountain brushlands vulnerable to seasonal wildfires.
Dallas siren system security breach
In April 2017, a major security breach disrupted emergency infrastructure in Dallas, Texas, after hackers took control of the city emergency siren system.
The hackers activated all 156 of the city sirens, causing them to blast continuously for 1.5 hours in the middle of the night.
The outdoor sirens are normally used to warn residents to shelter indoors during severe weather, but the midnight disruption caused a massive surge in emergency calls to 911 from shaken residents.
Rocky Vaz, who headed the city Office of Emergency Management, said officials had to shut down the physical system to resolve the crisis.
"We shut it down as quickly as we could, taking into consideration all of the precautions and protocols we had to take to make sure that we were not compromising our 156 siren system," Vaz said.
Municipal siren networks rely on radio control frequencies to signal severe weather warnings across urban districts.
UK test failure and opting out
System configuration issues have also prevented emergency warnings from reaching phone users during scheduled national tests in the United Kingdom.
During a 2023 nationwide test, tens of millions of phones across the UK emitted a 10-second siren accompanied by a pop-up message explaining that it was a test requiring no action.
However, mobile customers on the Three network reported that they did not receive any alert, while other users received the siren too early.
A configuration error on the Three network caused the failure. While most mobile networks repeated the alert at regular intervals to reach all devices, Three sent the broadcast only once at 3pm, meaning only phones actively connected at that exact moment received it.
Phone users who wish to opt out of future emergency alerts can disable the system features directly within their device settings.
- iPhone: Open Settings, select the Notifications menu, scroll to the bottom, and turn off "severe alerts" and "extreme alerts".
- Android: Open Settings, search for "emergency alerts", and turn off "severe alerts" and "extreme alerts".
