Delayed Emergency Alerts Raise Concerns About System Following Los Angeles Ship Fire

Clara Harter
Los Angeles Times
(TNS)

The Los Angeles Fire Department waited nearly six hours after responding to a massive hazardous materials fire at the Port of L.A. on Friday before ordering residents to "get inside IMMEDIATELY and close all windows and doors" due to potential toxic smoke.

The department's shelter-in-place order for areas of San Pedro and Wilmington was then lifted at 6:30 a.m. Saturday as fire crews gained the upper hand on the stubborn blaze aboard cargo ship One Henry Hudson.

However, it wasn't until 8:58 p.m. Sunday — more than 38 hours after the order expired — that many residents received a series of alerts informing them the order had been lifted.

In addition, some residents in Rancho Palos Verdes reported erroneously receiving shelter-in-place alerts from the city of L.A.'s emergency alert system. The city of Rancho Palos Verdes released a statement via email and social media around 1:30 a.m. Saturday instructing residents to ignore the order.

Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents the port area, thanked firefighters and longshore workers for their valiant work during the blaze but said that the manner in which the emergency alerts went out was unacceptable.

"Given the toxic chemicals aboard that ship and the plume of smoke that was coming off it, the shelter in place order should have gone out immediately," she said. "I could smell the fumes coming off the ship from my patio."

She said that sending an alert when most people were asleep was "too little too late."

The time lags and errors have sparked concerns among residents, including about the effectiveness of regional emergency alert systems — an issue that surfaced during the Eaton fire in January.

The L.A. Fire Department and the city's Emergency Management Department did not respond to The Times' requests for comment.

A Times investigation previously revealed that there was a delay in the county's evacuation orders in the area of Altadena where 18 Eaton fire deaths occurred.

During January's firestorms, evacuation orders intended for a small area of Calabasas were accidentally sent countywide. A similar phenomenon took place this month when an internal test of the city of South Pasadena's emergency alert system sent a message to phones across L.A. County.

"We are truly appreciative that there's an emergency alert system in this city and county, but it's less than helpful when alerts go out late," said San Pedro resident Sandra Waddell, pointing to the tragic results during January's firestorm.

Waddell said she was concerned about the approximately six-hour delay between when the toxic fire was first reported and when the shelter-in-place alert was sent. She also noted that this was not the first time alerts were sent to residents in the wrong geographic area.

"It seems there's still work to be done fine-tuning these systems," she said.

The Fire Department first responded to reports of an electrical fire originating below deck on the 1,100-foot cargo ship One Henry Hudson at 6:38 p.m. Friday.

The incident was declared a major emergency as 186 personnel were deployed to the scene of the hazardous material fire wearing protective gear such as body suits and oxygen masks.

Around midnight, the Fire Department issued a shelter-in-place order on its website and on social media. Residents were told to shut windows and doors, keep pets inside and turn off air conditioning due to air quality concerns.

Then at 12:36 a.m., a wireless emergency alert was sent to phones in the geographic area of the Fire Department's shelter-in-place order by the city of L.A., according to PBS' Warning, Alert and Response Network, which maintains an archive of all such alerts. Residents also reported receiving an email alert for the shelter-in-place order around 12:35 a.m. from the city's Emergency Management Department.

The ship was moved out of the port area overnight and anchored offshore in open water as firefighters continued to combat the blaze Saturday morning, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which took over command of the incident as the boat was moved into its jurisdiction.

At the peak of the fire, 100 containers were alight in four different compartments of the ship, according to Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Adam VanGerpen.

The department posted to its website and on social media that the shelter-in-place order was lifted at 6:30 a.m. Saturday as air quality monitoring by the Environmental Protection Agency showed results within a normal range. However, it wasn't until 9 p.m. Sunday that the city of L.A. phone and email alerts about the lifted orders were sent directly to many residents.

The Coast Guard reported the blaze contained Tuesday morning after it smoldered at sea for several days. Fire suppression efforts will soon be shifting to a salvage operation and an investigation into the cause of the fire and the specific hazardous materials that burned, according to Joint Information Center manager Steven Groner.

Times staff writers Grace Toohey, Terry Castleman and Suhauna Hussain contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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