How We Built Watch Duty, the Lifesaving Wildfire Alert App | John Mills | TED

(Helicopter blades whirring) Just one month after moving off the grid in Northern California, I was alerted by this sound. I went outside to investigate to find this helicopter circling. That's when I realized my neighbor's ranch had a wildfire running through it. The pilot started waving at me, probably to evacuate, but I stupidly grabbed my garden hose and started watering down my house instead. Shortly after that, a huge air tanker flew directly over my head. I watched the bomb bay doors open as the retardant went flying. (Birds chirping) And then the airspace cleared, and there was nothing left but silence. There was nothing on the news, there was no alert on my phone. And that's when it hit me, like 25,000 pounds of retardant raining down on me, I was out here alone, on my own, with only two choices. As you probably guessed, I wasn't invited here today to tell you the story about how I quit. (Laughter) So, like the Boy Scout that I was, I began preparing for the next inevitable wildfire. I started hardening my home, clearing my land and building sprinkler systems. But just a few months later, a dry lightning storm passed over Northern California and lit the world on fire. I was forced to evacuate with little information. Only this time, I went down the internet rabbit hole. and I found ham radio operators who were listening to first-responder radio communications and putting that information out on Facebook and Twitter. (Radio) It is 100 percent in alignment with the wind. This has the potential for 200-plus acres in the next 20 minutes. JM: This is how firefighters communicate, and it's the closest you can get to any real-time source of information. So these radio operators, many of whom are ex- or active first responders, listen to radio, sometimes 18 hours a day during wildfires and have become the heroes of their community because they're disseminating information before the officials. Now, they didn't ask for permission to do this, but they knew that their lives and their communities were at risk. While they offer an amazing service to the world, social media isn't the right platform for this. Not only are they hard to find, they work independently, and it doesn't send alerts to your phone. Social media is really made for cats and memes. (Laughter) Fortunately, my house was spared from that fire, and when I returned home, I joined those radio operators, began wildland fire training, going on ride-alongs and immersed myself in wildfire. But I kept asking myself: Where is the information? ["To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete"] And that's when it hit me, and I couldn't unsee it. I realized that the government wasn't going to be able to solve this problem, but those radio operators were. If I could just band them all together, we could build our own emergency alerting system. So I recruited many of those radio operators, found volunteer engineers from Silicon Valley, we acquired donated servers and embarked on an 80-day sprint to build the nonprofit emergency alerting app that we called Watch Duty. (Cheers and applause) Just a few days later, after launch, a wind-driven fire blew through a mobile home park in Lake County incinerating everything in its path. Our alerts beat the government by 41 minutes, giving thousands of residents critical moments to evacuate when every second counts. Unfortunately, the officials were not pleased. (Laughter) As it was their job to do this. Some of them threatened us. Some of them told us it was illegal. Spoiler alert, it isn't. The status quo has no interest in changing. But the residents, well, they were ecstatic. We were receiving love letters from across the region about how we'd saved their homes, their livestock, their ranches and their community. That's when we realized we were about to change the world if we just kept going. So with the wind at our backs, we recruited hundreds of radio operators, raised millions from philanthropists and locals, and expanded exponentially, year after year across the American West. And despite the government's protests, even they started to use it. (Laughter) (Radio) Watch Duty app! Watch Duty! Watch Duty app! JM: Firefighters, tanker pilots and dozer operators all started utilizing it, and governors and mayors started telling the constituents to download it. We had broken through. (Cheers and applause) And then LA lit on fire. All the alert systems crashed and the world turned to us, including the emergency managers themselves. In just a few days, 2.5 million people, one quarter of all of LA County, downloaded Watch Duty to find safety during their worst wildfire in history.

This is just the beginning, because we are expanding to all natural disasters, because people are dying needlessly without any warning. We are building the alerting system that we need and, frankly, deserve. We are proof that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Mr. Rogers would tell you to look for the helpers. I’m going to tell you that once you find them, prepare for battle, because the status quo will not change without a fight. Do not ask for permission. Proceed until apprehended. (Laughter and cheers) Thank you. (Applause)