Embersafe
A neighborhood-level wildfire preparedness app for Western US homeowners that turns official alerts into a calm family plan: drive route, go-bag list and air-quality forecast for your address.
Homeowners in fire-prone Colorado, California, Oregon and Arizona counties
- Calm, plain-English alert feed for fires near your address with distance and wind direction
- One-time home inventory that auto-generates a personalised go-bag checklist and pet/medication plan
- Pre-mapped evacuation route with traffic-aware updates as fires grow
- Smoke and AQI forecast for the next 5 days with do-I-need-a-mask alerts
The Bishop Castle / Aspen Acres explosive-overnight growth update shows how fast a single rural fire can escalate, while FEMA app fatigue leaves families unprepared for multi-front fire seasons.
Watch Duty added 600,000 users overnight during LA fires and now has 20M+ users, with NYT calling it a 'lifeline' — demand is clearly very strong.Watch Duty Wildfire Tracking App Adds 600,000 Users Overnight ↗Watch Duty, the fire tracking app used by millions, expands to help... ↗
Watch Duty (free, nonprofit, 20M users), Genasys Protect (free, official alerts), CAL FIRE firePLANNER (free) already cover alerts, planning checklists and evacuation zones — very crowded space.6 of the Best Wildfire Apps in 2024 - Frontline ↗Best Wildfire Apps for Alerts & Evacuation | Watch Duty + Genasys ↗
Dominant competitor Watch Duty is free and runs on donations/memberships ($6M raised 2025); government-provided alternatives are also free, so willingness-to-pay for a paid consumer wildfire app is weak.Watch Duty: A wildfire tracking app and its impact ↗Watch Duty, the fire tracking app used by millions, expands to help... ↗
Climate-driven worsening of Western US wildfire seasons (CA, OR, CO, AZ) is a durable multi-decade trend; wildfire risk and preparedness demand will keep growing.Watch Duty, a Wildfire-Tracking App, Provides a Lifeline in Los Angeles ↗
Alert ingestion (NIFC/CAL FIRE/airnow APIs), go-bag templates and route planning are technically straightforward, but matching Watch Duty's verified human-curated alerts at scale is hard for a solo team.Watch Duty Wildfire Tracking App Adds 600,000 Users Overnight ↗