CRusty Thomas began to panic when she called 911 for the second time on a warm October day but was unable to connect. She watched with bated breath as a plume of black smoke billowed over her rural community in central California.
Then I heard a familiar ping.
Watch Duty, an app that alerts users to bushfire risks and provides important information about fires when they appear, has already recorded the fire. I relaxed. The cavalry was coming.
“I can’t breathe a sigh of relief,” she said, remembering when sirens sounded in the neighborhood and helicopters roared overhead. “We were seeing it happen and had questions – but Watch Duty answered them all.”
Thomas is one of millions of Watch Duty evangelists who have helped fuel the app’s meteoric rise. And in just three years since the organization was launched It now has up to 7.2 million active users And up to 512 million page views at peak moments. For a nonprofit run mostly 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. There’s no longer a need to scramble for information when the sky darkens and ash fills the air, and users can now rely on an app for fast, accurate information — and it’s free.
It provides access to essential information about where risks are located, with maps of fire perimeters, evacuation zones and shelter locations. Users can find wildfire camera feeds, track aircraft positions and see wind data, all in one place. The app also helps determine when there is little cause for concern, when risks have subsided, and which agencies are working in the trenches.
“It’s not just about alerts, it’s about your state of mind,” said John Mills, CEO of Watch Duty. The Silicon Valley graduate founded the organization after moving from San Francisco to a sprawling ranch in Sonoma County where fire risks are high. After starting out in just four California counties, Watch Duty covered the entire state in its first year before rapidly expanding across the American West and as far as Hawaii.
As the community has grown — reaching people across 14 states in 2024 — new features and improved accuracy have boosted its popularity and, according to Mills, filled an unmet need.
In recent years, it’s not just residents who have become dependent on the app. A range of responders, from firefighters and city officials to journalists, also log in, ensuring 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 clearly the need is real. And with each new area they offer the service, word of mouth has led to increased usage.
“We didn’t spend any money on marketing at all,” Mills said. “We let the genie out of the bottle so the world knows things will never go back to the way they were.”
The app emerged from the social media emergency information ecosystem that for years has been relaying unofficial information. But unlike other platforms that seek to grab the user’s attention and keep it there, Watch Duty doesn’t have algorithms that filter out or distort important information.
They rely on volunteers called “messengers” who listen to emergency updates in a low static radio hum, analyze data from the National Weather Service and other sources, and discuss the results with each other before sending notifications to their active user base.
Run by real people, including active and retired firefighters, dispatchers and veteran storm spotters, the team collaborates to quickly gather and examine information when a fire breaks out.
Automated dispatch sends 911 alerts via Slack, prompting Watch Duty dispatchers in a specific area into action. Wireless scanners, wildfire cameras, satellites and announcements from officials are scanned for information. When conditions are confirmed, they publish the 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 donating their time and a small staff of just 15 reporters and engineers. Together, they have alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires this year.
Meanwhile, support was pouring in. This year, Watch Duty received $5.6 million in funding from grants, individual donors, and a new professional subscription model that offers paid users insights into things like where electric and gas transmission lines intersect fire impacts, utility-managed lands, private owners, and agency areas of responsibility — plus To the function of searching for historical and inactive fires.
But this is just the beginning, according to Mills.
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“I didn’t call this ‘firefighting duty’ on purpose,” he said, referring to the plan to begin reporting other hazards in the near future, including flooding and severe weather events.
As the climate crisis increases in severe storms, the model also demonstrated the important role that critical information can play in helping vulnerable communities adapt. Besides 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 participate during a White House roundtable this year, a huge step up from the initial response it received from local officials after the launch who were concerned that information on the platform might spark panic or… Spreads misleading information. .
“No one gave us approval to do this,” Mills said. “It was [built] From the bottom up – from the back of the woods to the White House.” Other agencies have also used its services, enticed by the comprehensive, easy-to-use information centre.
The Idaho Department of Lands uses a live feed from Watch Duty on its own website. When he first launched the app, Mills told The Guardian that he hoped the then-small team would become “too important, too loud, too obnoxious to be ignored.” He now works directly with burn chiefs, incident management teams and agencies such as California State Parks.
But the most important stakeholders driving Watch Duty’s momentum are people like Cristy Thomson who are looking to the app to cut through the chaos caused by catastrophic fires. The fire that broke out near her home last October was far from the first.
Thompson was one of thousands affected by the CZU Lightning Complex fire, which scorched more than 80,000 acres across the Santa Cruz Mountains, destroying 1,490 homes and other buildings and claiming one life.
Her house was saved. But during disasters, they help evacuate horses and other animals, a task that adds additional layers of chaos and the need for coordination. Before Watch Duty, she said there were many challenges.
She said the uncertainty and confusion among residents often ends in heartbreak for a horse community that scrambles when disaster strikes. Frantic evacuations could mean more animals being left behind.
“It was a relief to know that we weren’t the only ones on this earth who knew there was a fire there,” she said. “We knew they were throwing everything they had.”
That’s why she welcomes the admittedly “obnoxious” ring when it sounds on her phone. She’s grateful for the volunteers who watch and the reliable information they provide and hopes more people will have a Watch Duty buzz in their pockets in the years to come. She said the app was “helpful to save the heart twice over.”
“The most important thing is that you know you can trust him,” she added. “This is the value.”