I was extremely happy to find out that Watch Duty is now available in my area of the US.

I was introduced to Watch Duty during the Los Angeles fires back in January of 2025.

I used to live in LA County and I still have friends there, so I was often texting them to make sure they were okay. One of them introduced me to this app and I found it invaluable.

The only downside was that it was not nationwide.

I live in a national forest and forest fires are a thing to worry about. Several years ago I pulled up to the farm and this was the view over the barn.

I kind of freaked out. I mean, what do you do? You can’t exactly take a hose to it when the back 40 is burning.

It turned out not to be a forest fire, but a house fire (the house was a total loss but no one was hurt). The house was across the street from the edge of our property, and the local volunteer fire department quickly put it out.

Since fires are a thing around here, I was happy to see that Watch Duty is now available in my part of the US.

They are a non-profit and so I happily signed up at the Basic level. For $24.99/year I get to set up notifications, and not only does it show wildfires they also report on things like planned burns. Seeing a plume of smoke in the distance but being able to tell it is a controlled burn is great peace of mind.

Anyway, just wanted to share this cool app with a cool mission. Check it out and I hope you’ll support them as I have.