How we built Watch Duty, the lifesaving wildfire alert app | John Mills

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

After finding himself alone in an unreported wildfire in the woodlands of California, John Mills decided to take matters into his own hands. Hear the incredible story of how he rallied fire survivors and retired first responders to create Watch Duty, the nonprofit emergency alert system that’s beating official government warnings and buying people precious minutes to escape danger.

(Following Mills talk at TED Next 2025, he sat down for a special conversation with Elise Hu, host of TED Talks Daily. They discuss why citizen-owned tech is outpacing government response systems, how Mills builds trust by delaying alerts to verify sources, and their plans to expand the app to report on other natural disasters as well, such as tornados and floods.)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.
0:13.0	I'm your host, Elise Hugh. After watching a series of wildfires rage around his home in Northern California in 2019, Civic Tech Pioneer John Mills
0:22.8	had a simple question, where is the information that could help us better prepare for these
0:27.7	disasters? In his talk, he shares the story behind Watch Duty, the real-time Wildfire Alert app
0:34.4	he developed to provide residents and first responders with the life-saving
0:38.5	heads-up they need to escape danger.
0:41.5	His story proves that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can indeed change the world.
0:47.1	I live in L.A. and during the Eaton and Palisades fires, I was among the hundreds of thousands
0:52.4	who used this app to get critical information,
0:55.2	so this work directly touched my life. I sat down with John shortly after Ted Next to go beyond his
1:01.9	talk and learn more about this sprint to create watch duty and what's on the horizon.
1:07.0	Stick around after his talk for our conversation.
1:21.8	Just one month after moving off the grid in Northern California, I was alerted by the sound.
1:29.3	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,
1:33.3	but I stupidly grabbed my garden hose and started watering down my house instead.
1:37.3	Shortly after that, a huge airtaker flew directly over my head.
1:41.3	I watched the bomb bay doors open as the retardant went flying.
1:53.0	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.
2:04.6	I was out here alone, on my own, with only two choices.
2:09.6	As you probably guessed, I wasn't invited here today to tell you the story about how I quit.
2:14.6	So, like the Boy Scout that I was, I began preparing for the next inevitable wildfire.
2:20.1	I started hardening my home, clearing my land, and built-in sprinkler systems.
	...

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