Watch Duty was downloaded 2 million times during this week’s LA fires

Fire tracking app Watch Duty has become an important source of information for Los Angeles residents threatened by ongoing wildfires.

How TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff explainedthe app relies on a network of active and retired firefighters, first responders, official government reports and volunteer reporters who monitor radio scanners to offer real-time updates on active wildfires.

During this week’s fires, when official warnings may have been erroneous or inaccurate, Watch Duty rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts. And in Saturday interview with The New York TimesCEO John Mills said the app had been downloaded 2 million times since Tuesday and had 14 million unique visitors this week.

Mills said the app is run by a nonprofit organization, funded primarily by donations, with 15 full-time employees and 200 employees. He insisted that Watch Duty collects very little personal data about users and has no plans to sell it.

“I owe it to my community not to become a disaster capitalist,” he said.