CityAlert vs Watch Duty
Watch Duty: wildfire alerting staffed by fire professionals
Watch Duty does one thing very well: wildfire. Its team of volunteers and staff — many with fire backgrounds — monitor scanners, satellite detections and official sources, then push fast, curated wildfire and evacuation alerts across the western US and an expanding footprint. CityAlert treats wildfire as one category among many: it plots official wildfire feeds (perimeters, satellite detections, provincial/state agencies) alongside crime, storms, earthquakes and floods — 561 feeds across 520 regions, free, no signup.
- feeds polled
- 561
- focus regions
- 520
- cost
- free
Side by side
| Feature | CityAlert.live | Watch Duty |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | All-hazards map — wildfire is one layer next to crime, weather alerts, earthquakes and disasters. | Wildfire only — deliberately narrow and deep. |
| Wildfire detail | Official data: NIFC/BC Wildfire perimeters, FIRMS satellite detections, agency alerts — straight from the source, uncurated. | Staff-curated updates: human-verified perimeters, evacuation zones, air support and scanner-informed context. |
| Coverage | 520 focus regions plus global hazard feeds; wildfire layers cover wherever official feeds publish. | Western US states and expanding — coverage rolls out state by state. |
| Push alerts | None — it's a map and data feed you check. | Fast per-fire push notifications; a paid tier adds more notification areas. |
| Price & signup | Free, no account for the map. | Free core alerts; premium tiers for extra features. App-based. |
| Data access | Open GeoJSON API, embeddable map, archived history and trends. | Alerts live in the app; no public data API. |
Where Watch Duty is genuinely better
We'd rather be honest than persuasive — these are the things Watch Duty does that CityAlert.live doesn't.
Dedicated wildfire staff
Watch Duty's people actively monitor fires, verify perimeters and post curated updates — including evacuation info synthesized from multiple sources. An automated feed map can't match that during a fast-moving fire.
Wildfire push alerting
Its notifications are fast, fire-specific and battle-tested by millions of users during fire season. If wildfire is your threat, this is the better tool.
Which one fits you?
CityAlert.live is the better fit if…
- You want wildfire on the same map as everything else — storms, quakes, crime — rather than a single-hazard app.
- You're outside Watch Duty's coverage footprint but inside an official wildfire-feed region (Canada, Australia, Europe via GDACS/EONET).
- You want the underlying data — an open API, embeds and history — not just alerts.
Stick with Watch Duty if…
- You're in fire country during fire season — Watch Duty's staffed alerting is genuinely better for wildfire-specific decisions.
- You want evacuation-zone push notifications rather than a map to check.
Frequently asked questions
Is CityAlert a free alternative to Watch Duty?
Partially. CityAlert plots the same official wildfire data — perimeters, satellite detections, agency alerts — free and without an app. What it lacks is Watch Duty's human curation and push notifications, which matter most exactly when fires move fast. Many people reasonably use both.
Does CityAlert show evacuation zones?
Where an official feed publishes them, yes — but they appear as data layers, not curated alerts. During an active evacuation, follow your local authority's channels and tools like Watch Duty that are built for that moment.
Why would I use an all-hazards map for fire?
Because fires rarely travel alone — they come with smoke, road closures, outages and weather. Seeing them together is the point; seeing them staffed is Watch Duty's point.
Comparisons reflect each product's public feature set at the time of writing and are provided for informational purposes only — verify current details on Watch Duty's own site. CityAlert.live is an aggregation and awareness tool; for emergencies always follow official channels. See our terms and methodology.