On January 7, 2025, fires erupted across Los Angeles. Evacuation orders were delayed, official channels were overwhelmed—but Watch Duty, a free wildfire-tracking app, was already alerting people before the government could.
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If the government isn't going to take care of us then it's a relief to know there are citizens willing to step up. God knows the American public is far more capable and qualified than the idiots they confirmed.
This app is a lifeline in the summer. I have a paid subscription. Wired also needs to discover Zeke Lunder and the Outlook. Zeke is a wildfire pro who is another go to for wildfire information and education. Watch Duty and Zeke are the go tos in my area.
Thanks. Glad you let me know. Now if we can only get our County Alerts page to come to Blue Sky. I’m stuck on META for local info. We’re rural with limited local media resources.
Haven't read the article yet but from the snip, let's get this guy on @bsky.app since we are going to need to predict our own weather and have to rely on Canada for pandemic news etc
We had several failures of our emergency alert system here in Los Angeles during the fires. It was terrifying. Watch Duty was a haven for good information.
John Mills, a former hacker and wildfire survivor, knew firsthand how flawed emergency alerts were. After barely escaping a California fire in 2020, he realized the system was too slow, too bureaucratic.
In just 80 days, Mills built Watch Duty—an app that crowdsourced live scanner data, mapped wildfires in real time, and sent out faster, more precise alerts than state agencies. Launched in 2021, it quickly outperformed everything else available.
In my office, Watch Duty was the first reporting most of us had on the fires. In some cases, we were checking in on clients before they heard they were in an evacuation zone. I have no doubt it saved lives.
By 2025, when disaster struck, Watch Duty had already cemented itself as an essential tool. Mills didn’t just build an app—he built a lifeline. Read the full story: https://www.wired.com/story/watch-duty-john-mills/
Honestly, this app probably saved a lot of lives. It was a very scary time in LA and it was really awesome to have the realtime updates and map outlines for the evacuation areas. Thank you to Watch Duty.
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🔗 https://www.wired.com/story/watch-duty-john-mills/
🔗 https://www.wired.com/story/watch-duty-john-mills/