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

This app use to be really good. Now I no longer get notifications even though there is a fire 6 miles from me. Now I have to go into the app and try to find my fire just to see if there is an update. When opening there is just a large map with nothing on it, I have to keep making the map smaller to see anything. Also there is no way to look up the fire in your area, no list of active fires that you can just click on the fire you want to see. The app needs some work.

We live in a remote location prone to summer wildfires, as I'm sure many users of the app do. Was very useful last year, even showed a couple small fires started by lightning strikes a few miles away which were not mentioned anywhere else as far as I could find. No other resource I've seen is as comprehensive.

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.

What's new

Now supporting 4 additional languages: Spanish, Vietnamese, Filipino and Chinese (Mandarin)