California is rolling out AwareCA, an emergency information app intended to give residents direct access to updates from public safety agencies responding to wildfires and other disasters. Officials say more than 60 public safety agencies have signed on.
The app is built and managed by Intterra LLC, a geographic intelligence and public safety software company based in Castle Rock, Colorado, according to The Napa Valley Register. Participating agencies pay annual licensing fees ranging from $12,000 to $500,000, with costs varying by agency size and number of full-time sworn personnel. Intterra CEO Robert Wolf said he hopes at least 120 agencies eventually take part. The three-quarters-of-the-state figure is an eventual goal, not a measure of current participation, the newspaper reported. The app is available at aware.ca.gov.
AwareCA pulls together wildfire acreage, containment status, evacuation information and incident locations in one place, alongside radio and video feeds. Its mapping tools include 3D views showing responding units and aircraft flight paths, and the platform collects information entered directly by participating local agencies before making it available to the public through a single feed.
Built for Speed and Accessibility During Disasters
Users can register up to 10 locations and customize the kind of information they receive, and the app offers content in 135 languages. That language range lines up with Assembly Bill 2341, which requires emergency response agencies to provide certain emergency information in English and in languages spoken by at least 5% of the population in an affected jurisdiction.
The rollout follows a punishing stretch for California's existing emergency-information infrastructure. During the Eaton and Palisades fires in January 2025, which killed 31 people, burned more than 38,000 acres and destroyed more than 16,000 structures, CAL FIRE's website received about 72 million site visits, with 85% of that traffic coming from mobile devices. CAL FIRE intends for AwareCA to provide another emergency-information option carrying data directly from the government agencies responsible for the response.
What Past Fire Reviews Found About Emergency Alerts
A review of Los Angeles County’s response to the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires found that responders struggled to share information in real time across unconnected platforms and inconsistent practices, according to LAist. The finding concerns the county’s response; it was not an evaluation of AwareCA. The City of Sonoma’s after-action report following the October 2017 fires in Napa and Sonoma counties discussed the fires and emergency response, according to the City of Sonoma. A later Sonoma County record documents a September 2018 SoCoAlert test in which more than 290,000 calls were made; 51% reached a live person or answering machine. That historical test result does not measure current alert reach or AwareCA’s performance, according to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors agenda item summary.
Two Different Routes to Emergency Information
AwareCA joins Watch Duty, a volunteer-driven wildfire alert service whose app launched in Sonoma County in August 2021 under founders led by CEO John Mills. Watch Duty says its staff and volunteers monitor public safety communications and official sources, including CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service, and that it has reached about 30 million users.
Nick Schuler said AwareCA is not an attack on Watch Duty, while noting that Watch Duty is not made up of first responders. Watch Duty disputes any suggestion that it was responsible for misinformation and says it issues corrections when information it receives proves inaccurate. The service says it supports broader efforts to improve emergency-information distribution.
Ryan Isham said AwareCA is a great opportunity to get more verified information out to the community, a sentiment echoed in the app's design goals of unifying agency communication under one trusted channel. The CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit is negotiating onboarding into AwareCA, according to reporting from The Napa Valley Register's Susan Wood.
What Could Come Next
AwareCA may eventually expand beyond wildfires to cover other emergencies, including flooding, mudslides and other weather-related events, though no timeline for that expansion has been detailed. For now, the app's core pitch remains the same: verified, agency-sourced information delivered directly to residents, at no cost, as California heads into another wildfire season, with Watch Duty also serving residents seeking information when disaster strikes.
