Cristy Thomas began to panic as she called 911 for the second time on a warm October day but couldn’t get through. She anxiously watched the plume of black smoke pouring over her rural community in central California get larger.
Then she heard a familiar ping.
“I can’t tell you the sigh of relief,” she said, recalling how soon after sirens blared through the neighborhood and helicopters thundered overhead. “We were seeing it happen and we had questions – but Watch Duty answered all of them.”
Thomas is one of millions of Watch Duty evangelists who helped fuel the meteoric rise in the app. In just three years since it launched, the organization now boasts up to 7.2 million active users and up to 512m pageviews at peak moments. For a mostly volunteer-run non-profit, the numbers are impressive, even by startup standards. But they are not surprising.
Watch Duty has changed the lives of people in fire-prone areas. No longer left to scramble for information when skies darken and ash fills the air, users can now rely on an app for fast and accurate intel – and it’s free.
It offers access to essential intel on where dangers are, with maps of fire perimeters, evacuation areas and where to go for shelter. Users can find feeds of wildfire cameras, track aircraft positions and see wind data all in one place. The app also helps identify when there’s little cause for alarm, when risks have subsided, and what agencies are working in the trenches.
“The app is not just about alerts, it is about a state of mind,” Watch Duty’s CEO, John Mills, said. The Silicon Valley alum founded the organization after moving from San Francisco to a sprawling ranch in Sonoma county where fire dangers are high. After starting in just four California counties, Watch Duty covered the entire state in its first year before rapidly expanding across the American west and into Hawaii.
In the past years, it’s not just residents who have come to rely on the app. An array of responders, from firefighters to city officials to journalists are also logging on, ensuring key actors are on the same page.
“People always thank me for Watch Duty, and I am like, ‘you’re welcome – and I am sorry that you need it,’” Mills said. But it’s clear that the need is real. In each new area where they have offered the service, word of mouth has driven usage.
“We spent no money on marketing at all,” Mills said. “We just let the genie out of the bottle so the world would know things could never go back to the way things were.”
The app sprouted out of an emergency information ecosystem on social media that has for years communicated unofficial information. But unlike other platforms that seek to capture user attention and keep it there, Watch Duty has no algorithms that filter or muddy important information.
It relies on volunteers dubbed “reporters” who listen for emergency updates in the low hum of radio static, analyze data from the National Weather Service and other sources, and discuss findings with one another before sending push notifications to their active user base.
Run by real people, including active and retired wildland firefighters, dispatchers and veteran storm watchers, the team collaborates to quickly gather and vet information when a fire ignites.
An automated dispatch relays 911 alerts via Slack, kicking Watch Duty reporters in the particular region into action. Radio scanners, wildfire cameras, satellites and announcements from officials are scoured for intel. When conditions are confirmed they post the information, adding a push notification to users in the area if there’s a threat to life or property.
The network is fueled by hundreds of people who donate their time and a small staff of just 15 reporters and engineers. Together, they have alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires this year.
by Gabrielle Canon, The Guardian | Read more:
Image: Gabrielle Canon/The Guardian; Jon Putman/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock
It relies on volunteers dubbed “reporters” who listen for emergency updates in the low hum of radio static, analyze data from the National Weather Service and other sources, and discuss findings with one another before sending push notifications to their active user base.
Run by real people, including active and retired wildland firefighters, dispatchers and veteran storm watchers, the team collaborates to quickly gather and vet information when a fire ignites.
An automated dispatch relays 911 alerts via Slack, kicking Watch Duty reporters in the particular region into action. Radio scanners, wildfire cameras, satellites and announcements from officials are scoured for intel. When conditions are confirmed they post the information, adding a push notification to users in the area if there’s a threat to life or property.
The network is fueled by hundreds of people who donate their time and a small staff of just 15 reporters and engineers. Together, they have alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires this year.
by Gabrielle Canon, The Guardian | Read more:
Image: Gabrielle Canon/The Guardian; Jon Putman/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock
[ed. Imagine that, somebody (Mr. Mills) developing a life saving tool just for altruistic reasons, no profit motive involved. I don't know what's more impressive, the app or the developer (and the volunteers who make it happen). Contrast with the post below. Downloaded it straight-away.]
