ADS-B Exchange supports a broad range of flight data use cases.
Wildfires don’t wait for government alerts. By the time an official notification reaches a community, a fast-moving fire can have already jumped a ridge, cut off an evacuation route, or surrounded a neighborhood. Watch Duty — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2021 — was built on the conviction that people deserve faster, clearer, more actionable information when their lives and homes are at risk.
What began as a fire-tracking tool serving a handful of California counties has grown into one of the most trusted voices in public safety, reaching more than eight million people in a single week during the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and being displayed live in the city’s Emergency Operations Center. Today, Watch Duty serves users across all 50 states, combining real-time fire perimeter maps, satellite hotspot data, evacuation orders, and wind direction into a single, life-saving interface — all delivered free of charge and free of advertising.
Central to Watch Duty’s platform is its air attack and air tanker flight tracker, a premium membership feature that lets users and frontline responders see exactly where firefighting aircraft are operating in real time. Knowing whether a tanker is circling a ridge, where a helicopter is making water drops, or how air resources are being positioned relative to a fire’s edge isn’t just informative — it helps incident commanders, evacuation planners, and residents make faster, safer decisions. To power this capability, Watch Duty chose ADS-B Exchange.
- Purpose-built coverage: Watch Duty’s flight tracker is configured to display only fixed-wing air attack aircraft and rotary firefighting assets, giving users a clean, operationally focused view of the aerial suppression effort rather than a cluttered picture of all nearby air traffic.
- Reliable in difficult conditions: Wildfires burn in remote terrain where traditional radar coverage can be limited. ADS-B Exchange’s expansive network of ground-based receivers, augmented by multilateration (MLAT), helps maintain coverage even in challenging geographic environments.
- Trusted at scale: During the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, Watch Duty became a lifeline for millions of residents and was integrated directly into the city’s Emergency Operations Center — a testament to the reliability of the data powering it.
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Watch Duty's mission is to put people, not profit, at the center of disaster information. ADS-B Exchange is proud to power the aerial intelligence layer that helps Watch Duty keep communities safe when it matters most.