CALIFORNIA, USA — A map tracking wildfires on the west coast was designed by the people who arguably know them best, western firefighters.
Kim Zagaris, wildfire policy and technology advisor for the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA), said the map was made with mobile phones in mind.
"Maybe you don't have good bandwidth, maybe you can't do some things that you'd like to do because you try to pull down one of the government maps and it has a hard time loading up or won't load up because you just don't have enough bandwidth, broadband signal in there. So, that's really what it was designed to do," Zagaris said.
It comes as he said people called for a map that was a little quicker and a little faster. So, they developed their own.
"It comes off the feeds from the federal government, U.S. Forest Service... the National Interagency Fire Center, and is also working with a company called Pulse Point," Zagaris said.
Simply put, while other fire maps exist from other agencies, he said the WFCA's map is keeping things a bit simpler and a bit speedier by not uploading as much data.
"Some of the folks that live in the rural areas have been evacuated over many, many years, many times, and so they're not as willing to maybe evacuate as soon as a warning or mandatory evacuation comes in. In fact, some folks would rather just stay with their property. They're going to defend it," Zagaris said.
He hopes the map will be able to get additional information to people that would help them evacuate before it is too late.
"The other side is you're also dealing in an area here (with the Oak Fire in Mariposa County) that is one of the gateways to Yosemite, and as we have a lot of folks that are going into that area that are tourists, international..., we've got to be sharp enough and smart enough in the emergency management community to make sure we can send information out in a number of different ways," Zagaris said.
Zagaris, who has decades of experience and is also the former Fire and Rescue Chief for the California Office of Emergency Services, noted that the map is a way of getting good information in dire situations. However, he also emphasized that people should be listening to their public officials, noting that people should be signed up for the emergency alert warnings in their area.
He said the WFCA is aiming to improve and build upon the map, which could possibly include smoke issues as well.
"We'll go from there and continue to evolve and make it better as time goes along," Zagaris said.
To view the map, click HERE or view the embedded map below.
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