How the Watch Duty fire app became a go-to resource during LA wildfires

“Download Watch Duty” has become a common refrain across online discussions centered around the recent wind-fueled firestorms in Los Angeles.

Watch Duty is a free wildfire alert app and it’s mission of “getting clear, concise, actionable information when seconds count,” has been invaluable for many during fires such as the Palisades and Eaton fire, Nick Russell, Watch Duty’s vice president of operations said.

And its growth during recent wildfires speaks to that value. Two million users have downloaded the app in the past three days, bringing the total number of users to 4.8 million, Russell said. About 98% of the new users added are located in the Los Angeles County area, he added.

In a interview Friday, Russell outlined how the app works. Watch Duty has an automated system that monitors 911 dispatch calls and sends a message to their team on Slack, a team communication platform. Available personnel then monitor public sources, scanners, cameras, satellites and more to provide updates to users. The team vets information and waits for information from the scene. If Watch Duty perceives “a threat to life or property,” affected users are notified. The team updates fires until they are extinguished or no longer pose a threat, allowing “Watch Duty (to) tell a storyline of reports from the start of ignition until the last engine passes,” Russell said.

On the app, users can set up notifications for fires in their county, see maps of fires and evacuation zones, view information about winds and air quality, view cameras showing fire activity and see updates about fire perimeters, size and progress, all in real time.

The consistency and speed of the app has led many users to call Watch Duty their primary source for fire information.

Amy Diaz, a West Hills resident, has used the app since 2022 when she heard about it from her local Los Angeles Fire Department Community Emergency Response Team. Diaz trusts the app because it has proven itself to be accurate and the data is sourced in part from a website she has heard law enforcement refer people to.

“It’s one of my two go-to apps for information that I trust to be accurate,” Diaz, who regularly checks it, said.

In her neighborhood Facebook group, Diaz saw people posting outdated information about fires, something she feels could be mitigated by using the app.

Aaron Polsky, an entrepreneur in the liquor industry, is a new user of the app, having downloaded it two nights ago as the Sunset fire approached his area in Hollywood.

“It consolidated all the fire info in one place,” he said. “It just seemed like that was the app that gave the easiest information. I just wanted to know if the evacuation area would spread to us.”

He had the notifications for the app set to go off during the night so he could wake up and evacuate if needed.

“With the fires, you could have to evacuate any point during the night or day, so I wanted something where I could get notifications rather than having to proactively search for the status,” Polsky said.

Russell has been hearing stories of gratitude for the app more and more as users have relied on it during the Los Angeles wildfires this week.

“A couple (shared their story), saying that they believe Watch Duty saved their lives because they didn’t even know they were in an evacuation order, and they saw the alert on Watch Duty, and then they called their neighbor who was also not aware. And they both lost both of their homes, but they were able to leave well in advance because of the alerts they were receiving through the app,” Russell said.

Watch Duty was founded in 2021 and is run by “real people” —  both active and retired firefighters, dispatchers, first responders and reporters, according to the non-profit’s website. The team is currently made up of 210 volunteers and 12 paid support staff, says Russell.

While the Watch Duty app is free, the nonprofit accepts donations and offers premium features to paid members. Russell says the app will always be free and ad free. Much of their financial support comes from those who become members.

“We do offer two paid tiers that are really meant to support keeping the app free forever and then giving those people a couple extra things for that,” Russell said. “They get flight tracking, or we have Watch Duty Pro, which is specifically for first responders, and so it has a lot of features for them, but all that money just goes back to keeping the app free. We’ve had a tremendous amount of new memberships come in over the duration of these events, so that helps support keeping it free, and that means a ton to us.”

The app has seen a surge in popularity in the Los Angeles area this week amidst Southern California wildfires, but it was originally created in Northern California and offers updates for 22 states. Recently, the number of users in more urban areas has been growing.

“Even just three years ago, a lot more of the users were in wilderness, forested areas, Tahoe, you know, those kind of places,” Russell said. “But now these fires are just increasing in occurrence in these metro areas, and so it’s really people all over the place.”