Summit County Sheriff's Office explains faulty wildfire evacuation alert

COALVILLE — The Summit County Sheriff's Office says it is investigating why a wireless emergency alert tied to the Rocky Canyon Fire evacuation was delivered to mobile phones outside the intended evacuation area Sunday, causing confusion among residents across northern Utah and neighboring areas.

According to the sheriff's office, portions of Henefer were initially placed under a "READY" evacuation status as the Rocky Canyon Fire began threatening the area. A Wireless Emergency Alert was issued to notify residents and give them time to prepare for a possible evacuation.

Shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday, the state incident management team reported active and erratic fire behavior. Based on those conditions, authorities upgraded affected areas from "READY" to "GO" status and ordered evacuations.

A second Wireless Emergency Alert was issued at approximately 3:15 p.m. to notify residents of the evacuation order.

Soon after the alert was sent, the sheriff's office began receiving reports that the "GO" evacuation message had reached phones well beyond the intended geographic area.

Officials said they immediately worked to clarify which locations were actually under evacuation orders and distributed updated information through multiple channels. The agency notified all 27 emergency dispatch centers in Utah, as well as Uinta County and emergency communications partners in Wyoming. County emergency managers throughout Utah were also contacted, and a media advisory was issued.

Summit County Communications and Public Engagement staff also used mass text messages, email alerts and other public information channels to reach county residents with updated information.

The sheriff's office said it considered issuing a follow-up Wireless Emergency Alert to correct the problem but ultimately decided against it out of concern it could create additional confusion.

According to officials, emergency notification software indicated only 107 phones had received the alert. At the same time, reports from residents suggested the message had been delivered to a much larger geographic area.

That discrepancy made it difficult for emergency managers to determine who had actually received the notification and whether a corrective alert would reach the intended audience.

Officials said they were concerned that sending another alert could lead residents inside the evacuation zone to believe the evacuation order had been lifted or no longer applied to them.

"Protecting human life" remained the primary consideration during the incident, the sheriff's office said, adding that officials wanted to avoid sending conflicting information to people who needed to leave the area.

The sheriff's office said an initial review of the software used to send Wireless Emergency Alerts found no apparent problems.

Officials said several additional alerts have been issued since the Sunday incident without any reported issues. The county has also contacted the software vendor and is working with technicians to verify that the system is functioning properly.

Based on information available so far, officials believe the incident appears to be isolated and said they plan to continue using the current emergency alert system.

The agency said a more comprehensive investigation into what caused the alert to reach areas outside the designated evacuation boundary will be conducted when emergency conditions allow.

In its statement, the Sheriff's Office apologized for the confusion and concern caused by the erroneous alert.

Officials acknowledged that many residents received an emergency notification that did not apply to their location and said they understood how unsettling the experience was.

Despite the confusion, the agency noted that the wildfire response resulted in no loss of life.

The sheriff's office said maintaining public trust in both the county's emergency notification system and its emergency management efforts remains a priority.

"Our commitment is to learn from what happened, address any issues identified through our investigation, and continue working to ensure that when an emergency alert is issued, our community can have confidence in the information they receive," the agency said.

The sheriff's office said its immediate focus remains the Rocky Canyon Fire and the safety of residents and communities affected by the wildfire.

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