When the Cave Fire broke out in the Santa Ynez mountains above Camino Cielo around 4 p.m. on November 25, the Santa Barbara County dispatch office quickly realized that flames were headed straight down the hill toward populated parts of the county. They immediately issued an emergency alert.
The first alert went out smoothly. But later in the evening, when evacuation order alerts were about to be sent, the entire messaging system froze. It turned out that when entering the Spanish version of the alert, the tilde over an ñ caused a massive glitch, forcing the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to get tech support while the evacuation message remained suspended in space.
“I only received one text from S.B. County Aware & Prepare, which was not until 8:30 p.m.,” said Kendra Duncan O’Connor, who evacuated on her own accord at 7:45 p.m. Monday night. “At this point, my neighborhood was in serious jeopardy. San Antonio Creek Road was on fire.”