Have you heard of the new app, Watch Duty? We've been hearing whispers about it from friends and community members alike. Developed specifically for those of us in Sonoma, Lake, and Napa counties, it's built to facilitate telecommunications and alerts regarding wildfire activity of all sizes.
From the creators:
We have stood in fire, battled it side-by-side with our neighbors, and watched our friends and family lose their homes and livelihood in its wake. This destruction only seems to be intensifying as the years go on, and the communication systems and information available to the public is not able to keep up with the accelerated pace.
Although many of us were trained in Silicon Valley, we now drag tools through the woods to battle the blaze just like everyone else. The fire doesn’t care about your status, your wealth, your political views, or where you come from. It takes from all of us just the same, without bias, without thought, and without permission.
We built Watch Duty to help fight back in the best way we know how, through community resilience supported by world-class telecommunication infrastructure. We are a non-profit and non-government organization building tools and systems to help citizens and first responders recognize and track danger from extreme weather events, to help everyone stay safe and informed.
Our team includes skilled radio operators, firefighters, and citizen information officers who will provide up-to-the-minute information pushed directly to your phone. We pull information from public channels like police and fire scanners, satellite data, fixed and aerial photography and more. Our goal is to help you discover and track wildfire hazards in real time and very soon we will allow you to upload photos of what you’re seeing to help first responders and your community.
We recommend downloading the app so you get push notifications straight to your device, but you can also access the updated map and data on your browser by clicking here.