Cal Fire has a new app. It looks a lot like Watch Duty

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Set us as preferred When Cal Fire began advertising a new app for near real-time updates on wildfires and evacuations this month, Instagram users quickly noticed some similarities to another app on their phone.Cal Fire does not credit Watch Duty as inspiration for the new app, AwareCA, yet it alleviates an uneasiness many fire officials have with that app.Watch Duty exploded in popularity by providing up-to-the-minute firefighting updates, fire perimeters, and on-the-scene reports to people previously stuck navigating a fractured system of emergency alerts that gave minimal information.

Suddenly, residents were getting life-and-death information from a source over which emergency officials had no control.“The government tends to be a little more conservative” about getting information out, said Mark Ghilarducci, former director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

“Watch Duty tends to give you both a visual and an analytical view of what’s happening....

So, if you could see what’s coming at you, you could see where resources are being applied, you could see what the wind is doing ...the better decisions you could make for yourself and your family.”The company Intterra designed the app at the request of Cal Fire and local agencies.

Robert Wolf, chief executive of Intterra, thinks there is room for both apps.He sees Watch Duty as valuable for people who want “social-media-like” frequent, in-depth updates on wildfires, and AwareCA as a tool for Californians directly affected by a disaster who need certainty that information is accurate.“To be honest, I don’t view it as competition,” he said.AwareCA pulls evacuation updates and fire perimeter maps from official sources in near-real time and allows local fire and police departments to post updates directly.

Watch Duty does pull inf...