Please attribute to Rhys Jones Chief Executive, Fire and Emergency New Zealand:

Today Fire and Emergency New Zealand is investigating what caused a number of our fire station sirens from Tauranga to Waihi to activate yesterday evening.

This should not have happened and I apologise to Bay of Plenty people who were affected.

We take this false alarm very seriously. We are investigating the cause, and because our sirens are linked in to a nationwide emergency alert system, we will also work with other responding partners.

Despite this false alarm, I ask people to retain confidence in the alert system of text message alarms and sirens. These alerts are life-savers.

We will provide an update when we know more.

ENDS

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