‘It’s not just alerts, it’s a state of mind’: How a wildfire monitoring app became essential in the US west | Technology

WITHRisty Thomas began to panic when she called 911 a second time on a warm October day but couldn’t get through. She watched with dismay as a plume of black smoke engulfed her rural community in the center of the city. California become bigger.

Then she heard a familiar ringing sound.

Watch Duty, an app that alerts users to the risk of wildfires and provides important information about fires as they develop, has already recorded a fire. She relaxed. The cavalry was approaching.

“I can’t tell you the sigh of relief,” she said, recalling how soon after sirens blared through the neighborhood and helicopters thundered overhead. “We saw it happening and we had questions, but Watch Duty answered all of them.”

Thomas is one of the millions of Watch Duty evangelists who have helped fuel the app’s meteoric growth. In just three years since its creation, the organization now boasts up to 7.2 million active users and up to 512 million page views at peak times. For a nonprofit run primarily by volunteers, the numbers are impressive even by startup standards. But they are not surprising.

Watch Duty has changed the lives of people in fire-prone areas. When the sky darkens and the air fills with ash, users no longer need to search for information. Now users can rely on the app to get fast, accurate information—and it’s free.

It offers access to vital information about where hazards are, with maps of fire perimeters, evacuation zones and places to take shelter. Users can find wildfire camera footage, track aircraft positions, and view wind data all in one place. The app also helps determine when there is no cause for alarm, when risks have subsided, and which agencies are working in the trenches.

“The app is not just about alerts, it’s about mental health,” said Watch Duty CEO John Mills. A Silicon Valley graduate founded the organization after moving from… San Francisco to a sprawling ranch in Sonoma County where fire danger is high. Starting out in just four California counties, Watch Duty expanded throughout the state in its first year and then quickly expanded into the American West and Hawaii.

As the community has grown (reaching people in 14 states by 2024), new features and increased accuracy have increased its popularity and, according to Mills, addressed unmet needs.

In recent years, not only residents have begun to trust the application. The system also includes a wide range of response personnel, from firefighters to city officials and journalists, ensuring that key players are on the same page.

“People always thank me for Watch Duty, and I say, ‘You’re welcome, and I’m sorry you need it,'” Mills said. But it is clear that the need is real. In each new area where they offered this service, its use was driven by word of mouth.

“We didn’t spend any money on marketing at all,” Mills said. “We just let the genie out of the bottle to let the world know that things will never go back to the way they were.”

The app grew out of a social media emergency information ecosystem that had been relaying unofficial information for years. But unlike other platforms that strive to grab users’ attention and keep it, Watch Duty doesn’t have algorithms that filter or distort important information.

It relies on volunteers called “reporters” who listen to emergency news in the low noise of radio static, analyze data from the National Weather Service and other sources, and discuss the results with each other before sending push notifications to its active user base.

Managed by real people, including active and retired firefighters, dispatchers and experienced storm spotters, the team collaborates to quickly gather and verify information when a fire occurs.

The automated dispatch service relays 911 alerts via Slack, prompting action from Watch Duty reporters in a specific region. Radio scanners, wildfire cameras, satellites and official announcements are checked for information. When conditions are confirmed, they release information, adding a push notification to users in the area if there is a threat to life or property.

The network is fueled by hundreds of people who donate their time and a small staff of just 15 reporters and engineers. Together they warned the public of more than 9,000 wildfires this year.

Meanwhile, support is pouring in. This year, Watch Duty has received $5.6 million in grants, individual donors and a new professional subscription model that offers paying users information on things like where power and gas lines intersect with fire zones, and lands under management utilities, private owners and agency areas of responsibility, as well as a search function for historical and inactive fires.

But according to Mills, this is just the beginning.

“I didn’t call it a ‘fire watch’ on purpose,” he said, hinting at a plan to start reporting other risks in the near future, including flooding and extreme weather events.

As the climate crisis increases the likelihood of severe storms, the model also demonstrated the important role critical information can play in helping at-risk communities adapt. In addition to empowering residents in moments of chaos, the app has started conversations at the highest levels of government about communication gaps and challenges during disasters.

Watch Duty was one of a select few companies invited to weigh in during a White House roundtable that erupted this year, a huge step up from the initial pushback they received from local officials after the launch who were concerned that that information on the platform could cause panic or spread misinformation. .

“Nobody gave us approval for this,” Mills said. “It was [built] from the bottom up – from the wilderness to the White House.” Other agencies have also used their services, lured by universal access to easy-to-use information.

The Idaho Land Department uses Watch Duty live streaming on its website. When Mills first launched the app, he told the Guardian he hoped the then-tiny team would become “so important, so loud and so obnoxious that we can’t be ignored”. He now works directly with fire marshals, incident management teams and agencies such as California state parks.

But the most important stakeholders driving Watch Duty’s momentum are people like Christy Thomson, who are turning to the app to cope with the chaos caused by a catastrophic fire. The fire that broke out near her home last October was not the first.

Thompson was one of thousands affected by CZU Lightning Complex firefighterwhich consumed more than 80,000 acres of the Santa Cruz Mountains, destroying 1,490 homes and other structures and claiming lives.

Her house was saved. But during natural disasters, she helps evacuate horses and other animals, which adds even more chaos and requires coordination. Before Watch Duty, she said there were still many problems.

Uncertainty and confusion among residents often resulted in heartbreak for the equestrian community, which rushes here when disasters strike, she said. The frantic evacuation could mean even more animals are left behind.

“It was such a comfort to know that we weren’t the only ones on this earth who knew there was a fire out there,” she said. “We knew they were throwing everything they had at it.”

That’s why she welcomes the admittedly “obnoxious” alarm sounding on her phone. She’s grateful for the volunteers who watch and the trustworthy information they provide, and hopes to see more people putting Watch Duty in their pockets in the coming years. She says the app has been “extremely helpful on two occasions.”

“The most important thing is that you know it can be trusted,” she added. “That’s the value.”