The only California county that sent a warning to residents’ cellphones has no reported fatalities

By Aaron C. Davis and Sandhya Somashekhar October 13 at 6:43 PM

As wind-fanned flames raced across several counties in Northern California, only one activated the government’s most potent public notification system — a blast that overrides the volume controls on cellphones, turning them into the equivalent of squawking alarms.

The simultaneous wake-up call for many of Lake County’s 64,000 residents came shortly after 2 a.m. Monday, after county emergency officials decided to order a mandatory evacuation because of the inferno known as the Sulphur fire.

“We decided it was the right course,” Lt. Corey Paulich, spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, said of the alert. “We felt that our residents were in imminent danger.”

In neighboring Sonoma County, however, officials decided not to send an alert because of concern that it might cause panic and clog roadways, potentially blocking rescue workers or even leaving thousands exposed to shifting, wind-driven fires.

The fires did not treat the nine affected counties equally, and the destruction in population centers was worse in Sonoma than anywhere else. But all 35 confirmed fire-related fatalities were in Sonoma and three other counties that did not send wireless alerts. No deaths have been reported in Lake County.

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