> At a Glance
> – Watch Duty and Ring are partnering to automate requests for user video during wildfires
> – Over 10,000 Ring cameras were in the Palisades fire zone but went unused
> – New feature adds AI smoke detection for Ring Home subscribers
> – Why it matters: Real-time porch feeds could help residents and first responders see exactly where fires are advancing
Watch Duty, a wildfire-alert service run mostly by volunteers, is joining forces with Ring to turn neighborhood cameras into a live scouting network when flames approach.
How the Partnership Works
When a blaze sparks within a mile of a user’s home, the system pushes a ping to their phone inviting them to start a public livestream. Shared feeds flow into Watch Duty’s incident pages, giving civilians and crews street-level views of advancing flames or wind-driven embers.
- Users keep full control-sharing is optional
- Watch Duty editors review footage before publication
- Graphic scenes (single homes burning) are typically withheld
From Palisades Frustration to Fast-Track Deal
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff told Watch Duty CEO John Mills that more than 10,000 Ring devices sat inside the Palisades fire perimeter in January. None of that video reached emergency teams.
> “I want to get this fing deal done right now,” Mills recalls Siminoff saying, before writing “a fing huge check” to speed development for an early-year launch.
Siminoff believes the extra angles could have helped:
> “I do think this will be something that will help in these situations in the future to just give them more real-time data of where the fire actually is.”
Privacy Concerns and Editorial Rules
Ring’s history of police video sharing and AI surveillance criticism isn’t lost on either partner.
Jamie Siminoff acknowledged past missteps:
> “We’re trying to make things better, not worse, but we’re going to keep learning.”
Watch Duty applies its volunteer-driven standards:
- Single-home destruction is generally not shown
- Block-wide infernos or ember storms are published
- All clips are screened for public-safety value
Added Perk: AI Smoke Detection
Ring Home subscribers gain AI-powered smoke and fire alerts on their own cameras. Watch Duty stresses its separate detection system always uses human review-often one of its hundreds of volunteers-before any public alert is issued.
Key Takeaways
- 10,000+ cameras already dot high-risk fire zones
- Crowdsourced live feeds could show ember storms in real time
- Human editors gate-keep what the public sees
- Extra AI alerts now bundled for Ring Home users
If the rollout succeeds, porch cams may shift from catching package thieves to helping neighbors outrun the next big blaze.
