Sonoma County Based Wildfire App Goes Statewide

111118_thinkstock_firetruck
111118_thinkstock_firetruck

iStock/Thinkstock

A wildfire tracking app based in Sonoma County is now a statewide service. The app, called Watch Duty, is powered by volunteers, who use scanner information, crowdsourcing, and wildfire cameras. In about a year since launching, the app has 122-thousand downloads. Earlier this month, it expanded to monitor fires throughout California. The idea came from John Mills, who couldn’t find up-to-the-minute information about a fire near his property in Healdsburg in the summer of 2020. Since launching the app, he’s recruited 20 volunteers, including software engineers and firefighters.