Watch Duty (Wildfire)

Watch Duty

About this app

Watch Duty is the only wildfire mapping and alert app powered by real people giving you real-time information vetted by trained professionals, not robots. All other apps only rely on government alerts which can be hours late or flat out non-existent.

Watch Duty is run by active and retired firefighters, dispatchers, first responders, and reporters who monitor radio scanners in your area around the clock to bring you up-to-the-minute life saving information.

Wildfire tracking features:
Push notifications about nearby wildfires and ongoing firefighting efforts
Real-time updates as conditions change
Active fire perimeters and progress
Infrared satellite hotspot from VIIRS and MODIS
Wind speed and direction
Evacuation orders & shelter information
Historical wildfire perimeters
Street and satellite maps
Air attack and air tanker flight tracker
Saved locations on the map


Watch Duty is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that will always provide an unparalleled FREE service at no cost, forever. Our maps and alerting will always remain free but if you become a member for $25/year you will receive special features as a token of our appreciation. Your membership dues will support our free service for all and remain free of advertising or sponsorship.

If you’d like to drop us a line, learn more, or ask questions you can reach us anytime at support.watchduty.org. We’d love to hear from you.

Ratings and reviews

I hadn't used the app in a while, but I renewed my annual membership and reinstalled it on my phone. I was disappointed to discover that the app has been "updated" so you can put in specific locations (cities, addresses) to monitor. The option to select counties is no longer available, which renders the app useless for my purposes.

Definitely has great coverage. Unfortunately, if you live in one of the largest Counties, you are forced to either get notifications for the entire County or get none. Los Angeles County covers far too much geography for such level of notifications to be practical. It's ironic that the County is based on the GPS location and yet this app can't be bothered to use the GPS location to make alerts more helpful. If I can get less notifications from 100+ miles south of my location is give 5 stars.

I really like this app. You can see on the map, the location of the fire, and updates of how the fire is being handled by the local and county departments. My concern though is that today 6/23/24, there is a fire within 15 miles of my home. I received the alert from the app, but when opening the app, it keeps crashing repeatedly. Because of this I'm not able to get any updated information using the app. I have deleted and reinstalled, cleaned cache, restarted my phone, to no avail.

What's new

Real-time wildfire cameras from ALERTWest and ALERTCalifornia are now integrated directly into Watch Duty and viewable on our map!`

These cameras are critical, not only for our reporting but for your real-time situation awareness. It’s an honor to partner with these two organizations to provide you with the most actionable wildfire information available.