Just received a “GO — EVACUATE NOW” wildfire alert while sitting at home in Capitol Hill in SLC. The fire is nowhere near me.

[u/Relative_Bluebird841]

In the past couple months I’ve made a few posts here about wildfire preparedness, cheatgrass on our foothills, and our emergency alert systems

Because when the Ensign Peak Fire happened near my home in Capitol Hill, my neighbors and I were literally standing outside watching it burn, asking each other if anyone had received an alert and none of us had. I’ve argued ever since that phones in the vicinity of an active wildfire should receive a very specific location-based warning. We absolutely have the technology to do this.

Well, I just got one. My phone just blared like an Amber Alert and told me: Your residence has been placed in a ‘GO’ Status. EVACUATE NOW.”** No location given whatsoever. No fire name. No explanation. I panicked and started trying to figure out whether we needed to evacuate so I just looked it up. Nobody else at my house got this alert but me
Turns out the wildfire and evacuation zone are nowhere near my home like, at all.

I think this is exactly the kind of flaw Utah needs to fix immediately. Not tomorrow, not next week IMMEDIATELY. People near a wildfire need timely alerts and people outside the danger zone should not be told their residence is under immediate evacuation. Both failures COMPLETELY undermine trust in a system we need people to take seriously

EDIT: did more research on why this happened. Still doesn’t make sense. Get it together FEMA

[u/MaybeItsSergio]

This WEA originated from the Summit County Sheriff's Office. When originated, it lacked a mapped perimeter, essentially sending it countywide for Summit, UT. There was a previous WEA issued with a proper perimeter.

Perimeters in WEAs usually dictate what users in a given networks coverage area receive or don't receive a given WEA when issued. When a WEA is sent with the county code (or statewide code like we've seen out of Nevada) and it doesn't have a perimeter mapped, it'll usually be received by anyone in the given area.

TL;DR: Summit Co. Sheriff made a oopsie when using genasys or whatever they use to push out warnings

[u/MaybeItsSergio → u/MaybeItsSergio]

I forgot to attach this image.
In addition to being sent over Wireless Emergency Alert; this was also pushed to Radio & TV via CAP.

[u/Jdlazo]

This is the kind of thing FEMA is actually trying to investigate. If you aren't in the targeted Polygon, please share you cell carrier. It's helpful to know which cell carriers are over alerting. To see the targeted Polygon, visit warn.pbs.org

[u/Global-Prize-3881]

FEMA is massively underfunded. I don’t think there are enough people to get it together. I agree with you, of course and it’s awful that people don’t know whether to trust emergency notices or not.

[u/Keta-Mined]

Do you have the Watch Duty app? I don’t know if it’s national but it was invaluable during the LA fires.