{"id":1428,"date":"2026-06-09T19:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1428"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:33:08","slug":"denver-fire-official-triggered-errant-tornado-siren-after-failing-to-verify-touchdown-report-city-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1428","title":{"rendered":"Denver fire official triggered errant tornado siren after failing to verify touchdown report, city says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A member of the Denver Fire Department triggered the errant tornado siren that sounded across the city Monday after he received a false report of a tornado on the ground that he failed to double-check before sounding the alarm.<\/p>\n

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The member of the fire department, who has not been publicly identified, went to a physical black box and pressed a button to manually turn on the sirens, which sounded for a full three-minute cycle shortly after 4 p.m. Monday as storms rolled through Denver during a tornado watch that covered the Front Range and much of the eastern half of the state.<\/p>\n

The man had received a report of a tornado on the ground in northeast Denver, but did not verify that with the National Weather Service or the city\u2019s Office of Emergency Management as required by protocol, said Loa Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda, a spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was trying to do his best to make sure residents were safe and did not verify that notification, that sighting, and activated the sirens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda declined to identify the fire department member or say who reported the supposed tornado to the man, but noted the report was not from an official source.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Denver Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s emergency sirens can be triggered remotely or turned on at several physical locations in the city, Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda said. Particular teams within the fire department, Denver International Airport and the Office of Emergency Management are authorized and trained to turn on the sirens. She declined to say exactly where the sirens can be activated, citing the need to keep such locations secure.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s emergency sirens are set up to sound automatically if the National Weather Service office in Boulder issues a tornado warning for Denver, Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda said. In such a scenario, the sirens would sound and residents in the danger zone would also receive an alert on their cellphones, she said.<\/p>\n

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Similarly, if the city were to sound the siren manually for civil unrest or another emergency, officials would also send out an accompanying cell phone alert, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe send a message to people\u2019s phones saying, \u2018Hey, they are sounding, this is what they mean,\u2019 \u201d Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda said. \u201cSirens do not sound without a text alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That did not happen Monday. Instead, the member of the fire department manually set off the sirens on his own, which ran for three minutes before shutting down. The system worked like it was supposed to once it was turned on, and there was no technology failure or malfunction, Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is implementing corrective actions, including a comprehensive review of alerting policies and procedures and enhancements to training and exercises for personnel involved in emergency alerting and warning operations,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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Monday\u2019s incident was the third time in five months that city officials accidentally sent out a Denver-wide safety alert. In January, residents across the city received a warning about an \u201cactive threat\u201d near the University of Denver \u2014 an alert that was \u201cbroader\u2026 than intended,\u201d city officials later said.<\/p>\n

Then,\u00a0in April, an alert about a robbery in the Ruby Hill neighborhood\u00a0was again pushed out citywide; police said it was \u201cinadvertently sent out further than intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Heavener, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Boulder, said Tuesday that people who receive weather warnings or hear sirens should take a few moments to verify the alert with official sources before taking shelter.<\/p>\n

The concern with false alarms, he said, is that people eventually start to ignore all alerts, even those that warn of real danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say at what number of false alarms people start tuning them out,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we are in the prime-time severe weather season in Colorado. So if people start ignoring alerts now, it could pose a greater life threat to them. We are getting to that peak. Storms, tornadoes, flash floods are going to continue to increase across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esquil\u00edn Garc\u00eda said Tuesday that city residents can trust the Office of Emergency Management, but acknowledged \u201cshortcomings\u201d in the warning system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do still have a long way to go to keep building that trust,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 There is that work that is constantly happening to get better at alerts and warnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A member of the Denver Fire Department triggered the errant tornado siren that sounded across the city Monday after he received a false report of a tornado on the ground that he failed to double-check before sounding the alarm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-weather"],"yoast_head":"\nDenver fire official triggered errant tornado siren after failing to verify touchdown report, city says - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=1428\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Denver fire official triggered errant tornado siren after failing to verify touchdown report, city says - 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