Watch Duty, an app to trace wildfires with dwell maps and alerts, has turn out to be the No. 1 free app in Apple’s App Store as of Wednesday morning. The fire-tracking app surpassed the ChatGPT app for the No. 1 spot as devastating fires proceed to rage throughout Southern California.
Watch Duty has been round since 2021 and says it’s utilized by firefighters and first responders throughout the western United States.
The Watch Duty app pulls details about lively wildfires from a community of lively and retired firefighters, first responders, official authorities reviews, and volunteer reporters who monitor radio scanners across the clock. While different fire-tracking apps solely depend on authorities alerts, Watch Duty claims to have extra real-time data. However, it’s essential to recollect the app isn’t a alternative for official data.
Downloading the app will present you wildfires in your instant space, and provide you with a warning about close by fires, evacuation warnings, and firefighting efforts.
You may use the app to examine in different areas, which can be particularly useful you probably have family members in Southern California.
The fire-tracking app shot to the highest of the charts Wednesday morning as greater than 70,000 folks in and round Los Angeles county face evacuation orders from the Palisades Fire close to Santa Monica and the Eaton Fire close to Pasadena. At the time of writing, the Associated Press reviews that the fires have destroyed greater than 1,000 constructions and killed at the very least two folks. The fires proceed to rage, pushed by a ferocious windstorm affecting the realm, with winds topping out at 100 mph.
“Friends in LA: Download the Watch Duty app to trace the hearth in actual time,” mentioned Ryan Petersen, the CEO of Flexport, in a tweet on Tuesday. “It’s the official wild hearth app utilized by the firemen in California with very granular actual time updates, video feeds and evacuation maps.”
The app’s founder and CEO, John Mills, informed the Washington Post earlier this yr that he began Watch Duty after transferring to a fire-prone space of Northern California.
