Retrofit error when response is being parsed as list - json

Question

I'm getting the following error when attempting to get a array of json objects using retrofit.
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Expected BEGIN_ARRAY but was STRING at line 1 column 2 path $
The request is declared in the api interface as
interface HttpRequests {
#GET("/api/v1/emergency")
Observable<List<Emergency>> getEmergencies(#Query("lat") Double lat,
#Query("lng") Double lng,
#Query("dist") int dist);
Where Emergency is defined as
public class Emergency {
#SerializedName("emergencyUuid")
#Expose
private String emergencyUuid;
#SerializedName("lat")
#Expose
private Double lat;
#SerializedName("lng")
#Expose
private Double lng;
#SerializedName("phoneNumber")
#Expose
private String phoneNumber;
public Emergency(){};
public Emergency(String emergencyUuid, Double lat, Double lng, String phoneNumber){
this.emergencyUuid = emergencyUuid;
this.lat = lat;
this.lng = lng;
this.phoneNumber = phoneNumber;
}
// getters & setters
}
When I replace the List<Emergency> with String I can print the response which looks somewhat like:
"[{\"emergencyUuid\":\"axkdjfiwokdfj\",\"lat\":22.22,\"lng\":33.33,\"phoneNumber\":\"12345678910\"}]"
This seems to me a perfectly fine json array with a single emergency object. I do not understand why this can't be parsed. What did I do wrong?