John Mills, the CEO and founder of Watch Duty. ‘[The app] was [built] from the bottom up – from the back of the woods to the White House.’ 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. Watch Duty, an app that alerts users of wildfire risk and provides critical information about blazes as they unfold, had already registered the fire. She relaxed. The cavalry was coming. “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, […]