In August 2020, John Clarke Mills was evacuated during the Wallbridge Fire in Sonoma, which burned more than 55,000 acres and destroyed 156 homes. Struck by the lack of information he received before being forced to abandon his property, Mills quickly realized his situation was all too common: There is no standardized process for reporting these increasingly frequent disasters.
Almost one-third of Americans live in areas with significant wildfire risk, and 21.8 million citizens have found themselves living within three miles of a large wildfire. That’s especially scary when you consider that the average fire moves 14 miles/hour.
While there are many data sources related to wildfires — government and first responder communication channels, private and public cameras, emergency responder software, flight and weather information, satellite data, social media — there is no central source of truth. The setup varies not just from state to state, but within counties, making technical integrations impossible. While computer-aided dispatch (CAD) programs provide initial incident information, much of the ongoing communication is reported over analog radio. “Information dissemination isn’t keeping up with the speed of disasters, leaving citizens anxious and first responders in the dark,” said Mills.
Whereas most Offices of Emergency Services (OES) have physical locations, Watch Duty does not. Instead, they use Slack as a digital headquarters from which to aggregate their information and next steps: “No matter where first responders are, Slack can bring everyone who cares together in real-time,” he said. “I can’t think of a better solution.”
When a dispatch center receives a call about a fire, Watch Duty’s automated monitoring system alerts the team in Slack. All available local reporters collaborate in real time, gathering information from official sources and radio communications to distill just the facts. If there’s a threat to life or property, they notify the public via the Watch Duty app.
By the end of June 2022, Watch Duty was live in all 58 California counties, leveraging Slack to provide the fastest, most comprehensive, and most actionable source of reliable wildfire information for both civilians and first responders. By May 2023, the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization had expanded to 10 additional states, covering the continental Western U.S. “We’re trying to help people understand what’s happening as quickly as possible,” Mills said.
“We are almost 100% Slack. Our volunteers live in Slack and are always sharing so much important information in real time. It’s our primary communication channel.”
Volunteers tap into the power of Slack channels to deliver critical alerts
With just eight full-time employees, Watch Duty mainly runs on the volunteer power of more than 100 first responders, former fire service employees, dispatchers, and more. “Our volunteers have a very impressive track record of listening to radio reports and sharing information, sometimes for a decade or longer, via their Facebook or Twitter pages. They know the business and their locale, and they carefully validate all of our alerts,” said Will Krispin, Watch Duty’s VP of Development & Strategic Partnerships.
Before it gets to the volunteers, the Watch Duty system leverages custom code that monitors all relevant data sources—including California Highway Patrol (CHP), National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), Cal Fire, and other government agencies—then taps into the Slack API and Slack bots to talk to Slack. “We built the bots pretty easily on Slack’s API, and run them on Heroku,” Mills said. “It’s a really good example of humans and machines working together to break down complex problems and solve the nearly-impossible.”
Once a vegetation fire is dispatched, Watch Duty’s system relays relevant information to a region-specific Slack channel for review, alerting the network of volunteers in relevant regions. The team reviews and validates the event using strict reporting standards — and only then are Watch Duty users notified in the app. “We collaborate in Slack because it’s the easiest way to confirm our shared situation awareness and then share it with citizens and first responders,” Mills said.
To power working sessions, Watch Duty uses Slack huddles: With one click, they can open an audio connection in the relevant channel, and whoever’s available can hop in for a quick discussion. “The executive and product engineering teams use huddles all the time, but during a fire, our volunteers are listening to the radio, so real-time Slack messages are best,” said Mills.
Volunteers continuously monitor fires and any double reportings to ensure there’s not a new blaze that needs to be reported (which happens). “Intel is automatically gathered and then refined by a real person, which can only happen on a collaborative platform like Slack,” said Krispin. “Our vision is to become the Signals Intelligence Platform for all natural disasters.”
When a fire gets out of control, it becomes a campaign fire, and the team organizes critical information in a Slack canvas, a surface where you can create, organize, and share all the relevant details you might need in one place, whether it’s in a channel of a DM. “Canvas is how we pass notes back and forth asynchronously,” said Mills. “We add the local sheriff’s Facebook page, the U.S. Forest Service team in charge, and any other notes that will be helpful to whoever takes over control.”
Reporting accurate information in as little as 5 minutes
By the end of 2023, Watch Duty had successfully monitored over 13,000 wildfires, including 1,800 prescribed burns, and grown to accommodate over 2.2 million users and 50,000 paying members. Slack not only enhances the non-profit’s operational efficiency but ensures that both civilians and first responders receive reliable, real-time updates during critical situations.
For example, during the wildfires in Spokane, Washington, the sheriff directed people to Watch Duty, which had signed up more than half of the county’s 500,000 residents in one week. This demonstrated a substantial increase in reach and efficiency compared to the traditional government systems — which had onboarded just a few thousand residents. “It’s naturally viral because the people who were already doing that radio work for the community have joined to report on Watch Duty,” said Mills. “The Emergency Managers get it because the citizens are all using it”
Compared to traditional government sources, Watch Duty significantly reduces the time it takes to notify the public about wildfires: In a documented incident, Watch Duty was able to send the first notification in just 5 minutes from the time the incident was reported. In contrast, the sheriff’s department took 46 minutes to issue their first and only notification, which was an evacuation order. Powered by Slack, Watch Duty’s system can provide critical information much faster, reducing the response time by about 41 minutes compared to traditional methods.
Mills adds “We set out to solve a problem for the public, but didn’t realize all the first responders would start using it, too. They need us as much as we need them, and it’s our highest honor to be able to serve those who serve us.”
“We use Slack search constantly, and are always looking to build more ways to integrate in and out of Slack to expedite and streamline our collaboration.”
Using Slack to redefine how we manage disasters
Since Watch Duty has become a vital part of the emergency alerting infrastructure for millions of people in fire-prone areas, they need to ensure they can continuously serve users and expand their reach. To maintain their high data quality, sharpen response times, and reduce strain on current staff and volunteers, Watch Duty, like many nonprofits, also has a paid support staff. As their geographic coverage area and user base grows, so does the complexity of their internal and field operations. In addition to continuously deploying proprietary Echo radios to cover communication dead zones, they’ll work more closely with local, state, and federal governments, and build new commercial, philanthropic, and community partnerships.
As they scale, Watch Duty will continue to rely on Slack to hone their operational precision and provide the robust infrastructure necessary to support the team’s mission, eventually introducing alerts for other disaster types like floods and severe weather. To work smarter and save even more time, Mills is also excited to try out Slack’s new AI features:
- With search, they can pinpoint details about any live (or historic) fires in seconds
- With channel and thread summaries, volunteers who are taking over control of any given fire can catch up in minutes
- To get up to speed on the day’s reports, anyone can use daily recaps to get a summary of all messages missed
Mills recognizes the unique value of Slack in facilitating the swift flow of accurate information during emergencies. “There’d be no Watch Duty without Slack. There’s no other way to do this. It’s uniquely suited to what we’re doing and I can’t think of a better tool than Slack to do it.”
