With L.A. on alert, wildfire app Watch Duty adds 600,000 users overnight

As L.A. County fires proceed to wreak havoc, a fire-tracking app tally by a Bay Area nonprofit is gaining popularity.

Watch Duty, launched successful 2021, combines publically disposable maps of occurrence incidents and evacuation bid and informing zones — akin to what tin beryllium recovered connected the Cal Fire website — with structure locations, National Weather Service alerts and real-time text, photograph and video updates, with the enactment to person oregon crook disconnected notifications astir circumstantial incidents.

Watch Duty, which counted 7.2 cardinal yearly progressive users astatine the extremity of 2024, has already added 600,000 caller users successful the past 24 hours, according to CEO John Mills.

“What’s happening close present successful L.A. is the worst that I’ve seen successful the 5 years I’ve been doing this ... This is catastrophic,” Mills told The Times. “It’s truly hard to watch, but I’d alternatively beryllium doing this than not doing anything. It feels similar we could astatine slightest bash thing to help, due to the fact that different we’re conscionable sitting present watching the satellite burn.”

What is the Watch Duty app?

The app provides real-time updates connected fires successful 22 states, including California. Watch Duty has 15 employees and works with astir 200 volunteers, including progressive and retired firefighters and dispatchers.

The Watch Duty squad gets automated alerts that are sent to its Slack level erstwhile a 911 dispatch telephone is made regarding a fire. The squad monitors accusation astir the fire, listening to vigor scanners, looking astatine wildlife cameras and satellites and pursuing authoritative announcements from instrumentality enforcement and occurrence services and different nationalist sources, according to Watch Duty’s website. Watch Duty said it volition notify affected members of the nationalist done its app “if we comprehend a menace to beingness oregon property.”

As of Wednesday morning, for instance, users tracking the Palisades occurrence could find dispatches from Watch Duty unit newsman Cole Euken connected the eastbound grade of the occurrence and spot a existent representation looking from Topanga Peak west.

Who is down Watch Duty?

The app is tally by Santa Rosa-based nonprofit Sherwood Forestry Service, named for the wood wherever Robin Hood roamed.

Mills, who leads Sherwood, spent his vocation successful Silicon Valley, selling his nutrient work bundle institution successful 2022.

In 2020, Mills decided to determination to the woods successful Sonoma County. In his archetypal period there, helium saw planes and helicopters flying supra his home, arsenic his neighbor’s ranch was connected fire. Mills said helium didn’t person an alert oregon warning. During the 2020 Walbridge Fire, which ended astatine the country of his property, Mills said helium followed radical who had acceptable up pages connected societal media sites similar Facebook to notify others astir what was happening with fires successful their communities.

What if determination was a mode to marque specified posts much wide available, Mills asked himself. He began to ideate an app that would enactment arsenic a “megaphone” to disseminate the accusation to his assemblage and created Watch Duty, which launched successful 2021. Some of the radical who monitored fires joined Mills successful his effort to physique the app, and erstwhile they told their assemblage astir it, Watch Duty‘s popularity blossomed.

“It started with maine convincing them I was not a Silicon Valley tech bro. I was not present to marque wealth connected catastrophe and I lived present too,” Mills said. “It took maine a small portion to get everyone to spot me.”

Watch Duty was archetypal disposable successful Sonoma, Lake and Napa counties. Watch Duty alerts astir the evacuation of schools and hospitals during the Cache occurrence helped the app turn to 50,000 users successful its archetypal week. “It conscionable exploded from determination and it’s been a meteoric emergence ever since,” Mills said.

How is Watch Duty funded?

Watch Duty is escaped and said it does not mean to merchantability idiosyncratic accusation connected its users to immoderate extracurricular third-parties.

If users privation further features, they tin bargain a rank that starts astatine $24.99, which includes alerts for much than 4 counties astatine erstwhile and a firefighting formation tracker. The app besides accepts donations.

Mills said Watch Duty has raised $2 cardinal successful rank dues, and different $600,000 successful donations and grants totaling $3 million, including 1 from Google.org.

What’s adjacent for Watch Duty?

The app plans to grow the types of disasters it monitors, starting with floods successful the adjacent period oregon two. In the future, Watch Duty hopes to research the usage of different types of data, specified arsenic stream gauges, tsunami buoys and earthquakes.

“This has go a mode of beingness for us, and however we combat occurrence and past done earthy disasters,” Mills said.

And helium does not program to permission his location successful the woods, adjacent with the maturation of fires successful California.

“I’m not leaving. I had a prime — I could combat oregon I could run, and 5 years later, I’m inactive enjoying the fight,” Mills said.

The Times’ lawman exertion for amusement and the arts Matt Brennan contributed to this report.