How Watch Duty’s wildfire tracking app became a crucial lifeline for LA

If you unrecorded successful Los Angeles, you are astir apt already intimately acquainted pinch Watch Duty, the free app that shows progressive fires, mandatory removal zones, aerial value indexes, upwind direction, and a wealthiness of different accusation that everyone, from firefighters to regular people, person travel to trust on during this week’s historical and devastating wildfires.

Watch Duty is unsocial successful the tech world successful that it doesn’t attraction astir personification engagement, clip spent, aliases advertisement sales. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit down it only cares astir the accuracy of the accusation it provides and the velocity pinch which the work tin present that information. The app itself has taken off, rocketing to the apical of Apple’s and Google’s app stores. Over 1 cardinal group person downloaded it complete the past fewer days alone. 

The elegance of the app lies successful its simplicity. It doesn’t scrape personification data, show ads, require immoderate benignant of login, aliases way your information. Its elemental tech stack and UI — astir of which is maintained by unpaid engineers and reporters — has apt helped prevention countless lives. While Watch Duty is free to use, the app accepts tax-deductible donations and offers 2 tiers of rank that unlock further features, for illustration a firefighting formation locator and the expertise to group alerts for much than 4 counties.

With plans to grow the work crossed the United States, arsenic good arsenic overseas and into different emergency services, Watch Duty whitethorn yet switch immoderate of the slower and little reliable section authorities alert systems for millions of people.

An app calved from fire

The thought for Watch Duty came to cofounder John Mills while he was trying to protect his off-grid Sonoma County location from the Walbridge occurrence successful 2020. He realized location wasn’t a azygous root for each the accusation group needed to protect themselves from the blaze, which yet killed 33 group and destroyed 156 homes. John and his friend David Merritt, who is Watch Duty’s cofounder and CTO, decided to build an app to help.

“This came retired of an thought that John had, and he talked to maine astir it 4 years ago,” Merritt tells The Verge. “We built the app successful 60 days, and it was tally wholly by volunteers, nary full-time staff. It was a broadside task for a batch of engineers, truthful the purpose was to support it arsenic elemental arsenic possible.”

Fire reporting is piecemeal astatine champion successful fire-prone areas and often scattered crossed platforms for illustration Facebook and X, wherever occurrence departments and counties person verified pages sharing applicable updates. But increasingly, societal media platforms are putting automated entree for alert services down paywalls. Governments besides usage a wide assortment of alert systems, causing delays that tin costs lives, particularly successful fast-moving fires for illustration the Palisades and Eaton fires that person forced evacuations for much than 180,000 people. And sometimes, these government-run alerts are sent retired mistakenly, causing wide confusion.

Watch Duty simplifies each that for millions of people.

“We position what we are doing arsenic a nationalist service,” says Merritt. “It is simply a inferior that everyone should have, which is timely, applicable accusation for their information during emergencies. Right now, it’s very scattered. Even the agencies themselves, which person the champion intentions, their hands are tied by bureaucracy aliases contracts. We partner pinch authorities sources pinch a attraction connected firefighting.”

One of the biggest issues astir fires, successful particular, is that they tin move quickly and devour ample swaths of onshore and structures successful minutes. For example, the winds that drove the Palisades occurrence to dispersed to much than 10,000 acres reached 90 miles per hr connected Tuesday. When minutes matter, the piecemeal alert strategy that Watch Duty replaces tin origin delays that costs lives. 

“Some of the transportation systems for push notifications and matter messages that authorities agencies usage had a 15-minute delay, which is not bully for fire,” says Merritt. “We sprout to person push notifications retired successful nether a minute. Right now, 1.5 cardinal group successful LA are getting push notifications done the app. That’s a batch of messages to nonstop retired successful 60 seconds. In general, group are getting it beautiful overmuch each astatine the aforesaid time.”

A elemental tech stack

For Watch Duty, this benignant of wide connection requires reliable exertion arsenic good arsenic a group of dedicated unit and skilled volunteers. Merritt says that Watch Duty relies connected a number of firm partners pinch whom it has relationships and contracts to supply its service. 

The app is built connected a operation of technology, including Google’s unreality platform, Amazon Web Services, Firebase, Fastly, and Heroku. Merritt says the app uses immoderate AI, but only for soul routing of alerts and emails. Reporters astatine Watch Duty — those who perceive to scanners and update the app pinch push notifications astir everything from aerial drops to removal updates — are mostly volunteers who coordinate sum via Slack.

“All accusation is vetted for value complete quantity,” he says. “We person a codification of behaviour for reporters. For example, we ne'er study connected injuries aliases springiness circumstantial addresses. It’s each tailored pinch a circumstantial group of criteria. We don’t editorialize. We study connected what we person heard connected the scanners.” 

According to Merritt, the app has 100 percent uptime. Even though it started pinch unpaid engineers, the nonprofit has slow added much full-time people. “We still person volunteers helping us, but it’s becoming much connected the soul paid unit arsenic we grow, arsenic things get much complex, and arsenic we person much rigorous processes,” he says.

He says location are nary plans to ever complaint for the app aliases scrape personification data. The attack is benignant of the Field of Dreams method to building a free app that saves people’s lives: if you build it well, the backing will come. 

“It’s the antithesis of what a batch of tech does,” Merritt says. “We don’t want you to walk clip successful the app. You get accusation and get out. We person the action of adding much photos, but we limit those to the ones that supply different views of a occurrence we person been tracking. We don’t want group punishment scrolling.” 

Collecting accusation successful the era of Trump

Watch Duty relies heavy connected publically disposable accusation from places for illustration the National Weather Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. Should the incoming Trump management determine to execute connected threats to dismantle and disband the EPA (which monitors aerial quality) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the genitor agency to the National Weather Service, specified moves would effect Watch Duty’s expertise to operate. 

Even still, Merritt is optimistic. “We will beryllium beautiful good insulated from immoderate alteration to policy,” he says. “We are either buying that accusation ourselves already aliases we are happy to bargain it, and we will return that costs on. The truth that we’re soon going to beryllium covering the full US will defray the costs of thing that shifts from a argumentation perspective. Our cognition costs are mostly salaries. We are trying to prosecute really bully engineers and person a really coagulated platform. If we request to raise a assistance to bargain information from the National Weather Service, past we will.”

Regardless of what the adjacent management does, it’s clear that Watch Duty has go a captious and basal app for those successful Southern California correct now. The app presently covers 22 states and plans to rotation retired nationwide soon. 

“We sewage 1.4 cardinal app downloads successful the past fewer days,” according to Merritt. “I deliberation we person only received 60 support tickets, truthful that shows that thing is moving there. We are really conscionable focused connected the transportation of this information.”