Watch Duty Expands Nationwide to Deliver Trusted, Real-Time Wildfire Alerts Across the U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Watch Duty announced its expansion from 22 states to nationwide coverage, ensuring that every community now has access to verified, real-time wildfire information when it matters most.
Founded just four years ago serving only a few California counties, Watch Duty has rapidly grown into one of the most trusted voices in public safety. The nonprofit organization is best known for its actionable wildfire alerts, but also provides air quality index, wind direction, and red-flag warnings delivered directly through the Watch Duty app.
While Watch Duty's core services remain free, ad-free, and accessible to everyone, the organization also offers a suite of advanced tools that offer deeper intelligence. These include enhanced mapping, weather insights, aircraft tracking, utility overlays, satellite detections, and other professional-grade features that are all trusted by frontline responders and delivered at a fraction of the cost of traditional commercial platforms.
"We're transforming how disaster information is shared by putting people, not profit, at the center," said John Clarke Mills, Co-Founder and CEO of Watch Duty. "This nationwide expansion ensures no one faces disaster in the dark, like I was in 2021 when I founded Watch Duty. By bringing first responders and technologists together, we're solving long-standing problems in public safety and we're doing it better, faster, and together."
Wildfire is no longer a seasonal or local hazard. Nearly one in three Americans now lives in an area with significant wildfire risk, and drifting smoke from distant fires threatens millions more. Research reported by The Washington Post estimates that wildfire smoke contributes to more than 40,000 premature deaths in the U.S. each year, making it one of the nation's deadliest environmental threats.
Despite modern detection and suppression tools, life-saving data often reaches the public too slowly or inconsistently to act on. Critical signals exist in fragmented systems that were never designed for public communication.
Watch Duty closes that gap. Its platform takes in, verifies, and translates this information in real time into plain-language, map-based updates people can act on immediately. During the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles County, Watch Duty became the only lifeline, used by more than eight million people in a single week and displayed in the city's Emergency Operations Center as a primary live intelligence feed.
With nationwide expansion, Watch Duty is building a safer America where trusted reporting moves as fast as the emergencies themselves, and every person has the information needed to protect what matters most.
How to Help
Download Watch Duty for free on the App Store or Google Play.
Tell your friends and family so they're prepared before the next disaster.
Donate, partner, or volunteer to help sustain this free public service.
About Watch Duty
Watch Duty is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to humanizing and accelerating emergency information to protect lives and strengthen communities. What began in a few California counties has grown into a nationwide network serving millions. Combining human expertise and advanced technology, Watch Duty delivers clarity in the chaos, keeping people informed, safe, and connected before, during, and after disasters.
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SOURCE Watch Duty