This crowdsourcing app is a lifeline for Californians tracking wildfires

Tens of thousands of Californians are turning to a crowdsourced, nonprofit app called Watch Duty for critical, up-to-the-moment disaster updates as deadly fires continue to rage through the state. The app, which uses a mixture of official government and volunteer data to track wildfires, surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta's Threads as the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store on Wednesday. Social media users have encouraged residents in affected areas to download the app in order to track the fire's rapid movements and stay aware of possible evacuation orders. Apps like Watch Duty, which have seen a surge in interest in recent years, may become even more important as climate change-related natural disasters intensify in scope and scale. It gives you updates on fires nearby, evacuation notices, and even will show you where an evacuation center is if you need to evacuate!