Watch Duty

Watch Duty

About this app

Watch Duty, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, alerts you of nearby wildfires and firefighting efforts in real-time when every second counts.

Our FREE service is powered by real people – active and retired firefighters, dispatchers, and first responders – who diligently monitor radio scanners and collaborate around the clock to bring you up-to-the-minute life saving information.

We are the only fire tracking, mapping, and monitoring app that is powered by real people which means you get real-time information vetted by trained professionals, not robots.

Features include:
- Real-time notifications about the status and conditions on the ground as they change.
- Track active fire perimeters and progress using satellite imagery and other official sources.
- Air quality & wind direction
- Evacuation orders & shelters
- Share photos of fire starts and other hazardous conditions for first responders and the world to see

Ratings and reviews

I used this app last summer and liked it. I deleted it from my phone over the winter since I didn't need it. I downloaded it again yesterday and despite trying different combinations of downloading, deleting, restarting my phone, re-downloading, and playing with app settings, I couldn't get the app to work. I ended up deleting it for good in frustration. There's no other app as good. I wish Watch Duty still worked on my phone.

Absolutely invaluable app for fire-prone California residents. Simple, easy to use and navigate, far more useful than CalFire's website, which I find slow. My only wish is that I could follow more counties. I believe the limit is 4 or 6, for all alerts from that particular county, and I'd like to see unlimited as I have family in multiple counties that I'd like all alerts for. Other than that, I have no complaints. I've never experienced any technical issues. This is app is excellent!!

I appreciate the effort and the helpfulness of this app, but it is missing trivial and basic functionality such as locating your position on the map relative to the incidents. There is a common target icon that is used to reposition the map to your phones GPS location. It is too easy to get lost when zooming and panning around.

What's new

Bugfixes and improvements