Watch Duty, a non-profit dedicated to mapping and tracking wildfires, has committed itself to being the first (and so far, only) 24/7 wildfire monitoring service – helping to curb the flame destruction that becomes more synonymous with California’s dry season each year.
Catching Fire
Wildfires are notoriously difficult to monitor, which limits the amount of forewarning that can be provided to those potentially affected.
Watch Duty has identified that this is a critical issue and has centered its mission on delivering around-the-clock tracking by a team of fire professionals comprising radio-operators, firefighters, and engineers. It then disseminates this information to citizens via the Watch Duty app, which officially launched in August 2021.
The app has garnered over a quarter of a million downloads as of June 2022, and it encourages non-affiliated or unofficial agencies and amateur “reporters” – locals, enthusiasts, and social media group moderators – to actively participate in the communication channels that Watch Duty utilizes to monitor a traveling blaze with as much precision as possible. Key features of the app include live, real-time wildfire updates for all of California’s 58 counties, maps, news, and projected travel path for active blazes.
Trailblazing Innovation
Prior to Watch Duty’s inception, residents of California’s most vulnerable areas could only rely on automated phone recordings and voicemail notifications via their county Sheriff’s department for the most up-to-date and accurate information regarding the spread of approaching wildfires in their vicinity. However, the issuance of these notifications oftentimes does not reach the recipients with enough advanced notice to allow them to properly prepare and implement safe evacuation procedures – leaving many of those impacted to either live in constant fear and neverending preparation, or the undying feeling of being perpetually behind-the-eight-ball when it comes to blaze updates.
An even more concerning and dangerous byproduct from lack of information is the spawn of misinformation on social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Watch Duty aims to effectively eliminate any opportunity for hearsay by providing factual information that is as timely as it is accurate. The company website displays a strict code of conduct that pledges internal fact-checking on reporting as well as a series of principles that bars publishing any information based on speculation – all of Watch Duty’s information is confirmed in advance from a bonafide source such as a Sheriff’s Department, CALFIRE publication, radio scanner transmission, etc. prior to publication, and it is presented in real-time to give the listener optimal advance warning if a flame is approaching. Some of Watch Duty’s other core values include a promise to only deliver relevant data that is free from opinion or editorialization and the prioritization of information accuracy over notification speed.
Keeping the Flame Burning
Currently, Watch Duty’s services only cover the state of California, but the group is interested in expanding into neighboring states, such as Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona. The app also implements OpenStreetMap technology, which would allow Watch Duty to expand its service area to corners of the United States far beyond California.
Following the surge of positive reception that Watch Duty’s app has obtained, there has been an outcry from some users to expand the app to track other types of natural disasters and emergencies, such as flash floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes. It seems, at least for the time being, that Watch Duty currently self-identifies solely as a wildfire-awareness entity, although it does appear that the sky’s the only limit for this growing organization.
Keith Hudak 