When anger is, millions resort to observing a duty. Meet the man who made it

John Clark Mills It was at the enlargement meeting when everything went to hell. He was half of the tenth of his age on January 7, 2025, Mills – SSSIM, and PROFANE, and rejoiced by years of smoking – he was speaking for free Fire tracking applicationand Watch a dutyTo a co -worker and one of his non -profit investors. Behind him on the wall, a giant framed photo hung the trees that were flooded in fire.

As the CEO, Mills usually pays close attention to attending a meeting with people, but his eyes are on the backgrounds in the background. A few minutes ago, the fire started in Temcal Canyon Trailhead in Pacific Palisades, California, 400 miles to the south. At 10:32 am, a camera at the University of California San Diego Alert The network caught a look at the smoke column. A remote worker at Watch Duty on the camera saw the camera and cut a picture. At 10:33 am, he posted it on the application with an illustrative name: “Resources respond to the flames of the reported plants with visible smoke on the Temescal Canyon camera.” Twenty minutes later, the accident had a name. Fire fire.

The wind caught the embers. The fire spread. Firefighters responded, and trucks were transported in fighting the fire. Calfire – such as forest management and fire protection in the state – is known The first general report From the accident at 11:06 am. Mills updated everyone to enlarge. He said this would be bad.

More fire caught. To the east, Nair Etone I was in the Altina neighborhood. The sunset fire in the hills above the Hollywood was small, which is a luster compared to the other two, but however, it was drained on emergency resources. Next week, Los Angeles has become a besieged city through fire, confusion and loss. At least 29 people. Billions of destructive dollars. The entire neighborhoods – thousands of homes – were beyond reform or burned on the ground.

Watch Duty Posts Details on Active Fires in 22 states – circumferenceEvacuation areas, air quality classifications-and ultra-time notifications are sent to their users. With the spread of fires, 2.5 million new people downloaded the application, almost doubled the base of users. Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Maires mentioned this in late night. On social media, people sang directly on the path of fire, and praising the duty, with deep gratitude for its existence.

Official evacuation orders are usually in time and useful, but not always. If you live in Fire Country, you will hear stories about the evacuation orders that are sent to them The wrong people Or it is sent It is too lateRepeated people in homes Already burn. For residents under the threat of fire, the duty of monitoring is often a clear signal that penetrates a wall of mutual and stability.

Palisades fire in January 2025.

Photo: Jimmy Lee Taiti