App provides immediate fire information to Los Angeles residents

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Transcript

00:00When the blazes in Los Angeles County raged on, residents turned to a mobile app for the

00:05latest updates and where the apparent dangers lay.

00:08VOA's Michelle Quinn tells us more.

00:11As the Los Angeles fires burned and threatened communities, residents and first responders

00:18needed information they could use immediately.

00:21Evacuation zones, wind and smoke direction, power outages and more.

00:27They turned to an app called Watch Duty, run by a team hundreds of kilometers away

00:33in Northern California.

00:35Watch Duty offers residents crucial information about new outbreaks, changing wind patterns

00:41and other concerns.

00:43Think of it as a virtual emergency operations center that gives neighborhood by neighborhood

00:49updates as a crisis unfolds.

00:52My emergency and my neighbor who lives, you know, a quarter mile away from me, our emergencies

00:58are much different as well.

01:00That rings true through communities everywhere and that's where technology really comes in.

01:06Watch Duty's delivery of detailed, localized information is one reason for its popularity

01:13with its 7 million users, many of whom downloaded the app in recent weeks.

01:19Watch Duty's success points to the promise that technologies such as artificial intelligence

01:24and sensors will give residents and first responders the real-time information they

01:30need to survive and fight natural disasters.

01:34Among Watch Duty's technology partners is Alert California, run by the University of

01:39California San Diego.

01:42This network of more than 1,000 AI-enhanced cameras throughout the state looks for smoke,

01:49often detecting fires before people call emergency lines.

01:54Together we become the eyes and ears and then we disseminate that into reports to the public

01:58through our platform.

01:59Another Watch Duty partner is N5 Sensors, a Maryland-based firm.

02:05Its ground-based sensors detect smoke, heat and other signs of fire.

02:11They are like a nose, if you will, so they detect smoke anomalies and different chemical

02:16patterns in the air.

02:18Watch Duty's service covers 22 states, mostly in the western U.S., and it plans to expand

02:25to all states.

02:27While fire has been its focus, Watch Duty also plans to track other natural disasters

02:32such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.

02:37We want to be that one-stop shop where people can go and get this information and in those

02:43times of duress have a source that makes it clear and concise what's happening.

02:49We've got fire coming down the hill.

02:50Michelle Quinn, DOA News.

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