The emergency sirens that echoed throughout Denver during Monday’s afternoon thunderstorm were “sounded inadvertently,” Denver officials said.
The sirens went off for roughly 5 minutes shortly after 4 p.m. Monday, as the storm moved through the city. But there was “no threat of destructive weather” to the city, Denver’s Office of Emergency Management acknowledged in a statement to The Denver Post about 20 minutes later.
“We understand that unexpected siren activations can be concerning and (we) appreciate the public’s patience and understanding,” late Monday afternoon, more than 45 minutes after the sirens went off. “The cause of the activation is being reviewed, and appropriate steps will be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
The incident was the third time in five months that city officials accidentally sent out a Denver-wide safety alert. In January, residents across the capital city received a warning about an “active threat” near the University of Denver — an alert that was “broader … than intended,” city officials later said.
Then, in April, an alert about a robbery in the Ruby Hill neighborhood was again pushed out citywide; police said it was “inadvertently sent out further than intended.”
