How to track the California wildfires on your phone with Watch Duty

With Los Angeles on fire, residents have spent the last few days seeking ways to get the latest information on evacuation orders and new and existing fires that are growing or contracting.

Public services like the Los Angeles Fire Department and the statewide CalFire have resources available but may not always be current or have everything we need.

Watch Duty, a mobile app launched in 2021, fills that void by combining publicly available maps of fires with evacuation orders, warning zones and shelter locations. It pulls some of this information from places like the LAFD website.

The app also adds information from the National Weather Service and real-time text, photos and videos.

It provides such a comprehensive amount of information that it's been reported that even firefighters on the ground use the app for more timely information.

With vast swathes of Los Angeles facing multiple fires, the app recently became the No. 1 free app in Apple's app store, surpassing ChatGPT, as reported by Tech Crunch. A Los Angeles Times report said the app had gained 600,000 users in just 24 hours, on top of the already 7.2 million yearly active users.

As of this writing, Watch Duty provides real-time updates on fires in nearly every state west of the Mississippi. The app is powered by a team that gets automated alerts whenever a 911 dispatch call is made regarding a fire. Utilizing information from radio scanners, satellites and official announcements, the team monitors the location of fires.

As an example, the fire that destroyed much of the Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles received updates, including images from wildlife cameras, official statements, and evacuation orders, as they expanded to include more areas surrounding the community.

The app was created in 2021 by John Mills, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who moved to Sonoma Valley in Northern California after selling a software company. As the Washington Post reported earlier this year, Mills wanted to create a "megaphone" to help people.

Mills told the LA Times, "What’s happening right now in L.A. is the worst that I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been doing this ... This is catastrophic. It’s really hard to watch, but I’d rather be doing this than not doing anything. It feels like we could at least do something to help, because otherwise we’re just sitting here watching the world burn.”

How to use Watch Duty

Watch Duty can be downloaded on Android and iOS devices or use the web browser version here.

Using location tracking, the app highlights wildfires that are near your area. It can send notifications on firefighting efforts and evacuation warnings, though you can turn off notifications for specific fires.

Using the layers button, you can customize how much information you see on the app, including topographic displays, fire perimeters, flight tracking and power outages (in California). Additionally, the app has a comprehensive legend button on the map that will explain what the different colors (like evacuation levels) and symbols mean on the maps.

Watch Duty is free, and all the information described is available in the free version. You can pay for a membership that starts at $24.99, which adds alerts for more than four counties at once and a firefighting flight tracker.

The app also accepts donations. There is a Pro membership for professionals that is $99.99 a year. The Watch Duty website says that the memberships and donations are intended to help maintain the app and ensure free access "for all."

According to Mills, Watch Duty plans to add other natural disaster monitoring in the future, including floods and earthquakes. Flood information could potentially be available online in the next couple of months.

“This has become a way of life for us, and how we fight fire and survive through natural disasters,” Mills told the Times.

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