Monitor California Wildfires on Your Phone with Watch Duty
As flames engulf Los Angeles, Watch Duty offers real-time updates by merging official data with local content, aiding residents and firefighters in responding effectively.
Watch Duty: An Essential App During Fire Season
As Los Angeles battles widespread fires, residents are in dire need of timely updates on evacuation orders and fire developments. Rising to the occasion, Watch Duty, a mobile app launched in 2021, has become an invaluable tool.
A Tool Merging Official Data with Real-Time Information
Watch Duty integrates public fire maps with evacuation orders, alert zones, and shelter locations. It sources part of its data from entities like the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). Beyond official data, the app also includes updates from the National Weather Service and real-time texts, photos, and videos. Its comprehensive information flow is so reliable that even firefighters use it for the latest updates.
Growing Popularity
Amid Los Angeles’s severe fires, the app recently topped Apple’s App Store as the number one free app, overtaking ChatGPT, according to Tech Crunch. The Los Angeles Times notes that the app gained 600,000 users in just 24 hours, adding to its annual active user base of 7.2 million.
An Initiative by John Mills
Watch Duty was founded in 2021 by John Mills, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who moved to Northern California’s Sonoma Valley after selling a software company. As reported by the Washington Post earlier this year, Mills aimed to create a “megaphone” to assist people.
How to Use Watch Duty?
Available on Android and iOS, the app uses location tracking to highlight nearby fires. It can send notifications about firefighting efforts and evacuation warnings. Users can customize the display of information, including topographic displays, fire perimeters, and flight tracking.
Watch Duty is free, and all described features are available in the free version. However, a paid subscription starting at $24.99 offers alerts for more than four counties at a time and enhanced fire-fighting flight tracking. The app also accepts donations.
Expansion Plans
According to Mills, Watch Duty plans to add more features for monitoring natural disasters in the future, including floods and earthquakes. Flood information could be online in the coming months. Mills emphasizes, “This has become a way of life for us, and how we combat fires and survive natural disasters.”