Fault triggers sirens across the North Island's east coast

Sunday, 19 January 2020

Residents staying in Waihī Beach when a fault triggered tsunami sirens across the Bay of Plenty coast say the lack of information was confusing and upsetting for people. 

Fire and Emergency NZ confirmed on Monday that the sirens that sent some Bay of Plenty residents fleeing were due to a 'forgotten' system.

While there was no actual tsunami threat, many people took the sirens to be a tsunami warning.

The sirens were activated on Sunday night about 9.15pm, particularly around Waikato and Bay of Plenty and were a false alarm.

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Police received an influx of calls when the sirens went off in fire stations from Tauranga to Waihī.

Hamilton resident Rebecca Pennell was evacuated from the Beachaven Top 10 Holiday Park in Waihī Beach and said people were upset and confused by the siren as they had not had any official alert through their phones. 

Office staff came running out and told them everybody had to evacuate. Pennell said they left without locking their cabin and rushed into Waihī to the RSA, which they thought was the highest point. 

'It's a little bit scary and the kids got freaked out,' she told Stuff.

There was a sense of panic and Pennell said their neighbour's children were screaming and crying. 

'We saw people carrying a few things [to their car] not sure how long they would be away from tents and things.' 

When they got to the RSA, Pennell said a group of them were all trying to get information but could not find anything for quite some time. 

'Fire and Emergency New Zealand came up after about half an hour and said they had been advised by Civil Defence they had not [triggered it] but they couldn't tell us to go home or not because they didn't know why the alarm had gone on.' 

After about 45 minutes Pennell said they got to go home. 

'The kids are quite unnerved. It took them a while to go to sleep and my daughter was quite upset about it.' 

Alice Lyons was also at the camping ground when the sirens sounded.

'It was a very scary experience trying to collect my four children, but they came home fast enough.' Lyons told Stuff they drove to Waihī where Top 10 advised them to. The family stopped in at the BP for a toilet stop, petrol, cash and coffee.

'We parked there for five minutes to drink coffee when police arrived and said it was a false alarm.'

Lyons said it was a 'wake up call' and it shows the need for all to be prepared, wherever you are.

Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) spokesman Kerry Gregory updated media on the incident outside Auckland FENZ regional headquarters on Monday afternoon.

FENZ was still investigating exactly what triggered the sirens, Gregory said.

He would not rule out human error playing a part but said FENZ did not suspect the system had been hacked.

The alarms triggered were part of a 'complex arrangement of sirens,' Gregory said, coordinated by FENZ, Civil Defence, Bay of Plenty Council and Spark.

Gregory said the system had been in place since 2006 but had been 'forgotten' as different groups had amalgamated.

A 'patch' had been put in place to make sure there wasn't a repeat incident on Monday night, but Gregory said the exact technical fault would need to be identified before FENZ could work out a long-term fix.

FENZ chief executive Rhys Jones said, in a statement, that it should never have happened and apologised to those impacted.

Jones said despite the false alarm he asked people to retain confidence in the alert system of text message alarms and sirens.

'These alerts are life-savers.'