Watch Duty and Ring Launch New “Fire Watch” Feature to Expand Real-Time Wildfire Awareness
One year after the devastating Los Angeles fires, Watch Duty is expanding how communities receive and share critical wildfire information through a new partnership with Ring. Together, we’ve launched Fire Watch, a new feature built into the Ring app Neighbors section. The Fire Watch feature brings trusted wildfire intelligence, real-time alerts, and community-sourced ground truth to people when every second matters.
The feature combines Watch Duty’s verified, on-the-ground wildfire reporting with neighborhood-level insights from Ring camera owners. The goal is simple: help people understand what’s happening around them faster, make better-informed safety decisions, and support first responders during rapidly evolving fire events.
As part of this partnership, Ring has made a $1 million donation to Watch Duty, supporting our expansion to all 50 states and strengthening our ability to deliver real-time, community-powered emergency information nationwide.
How It Works

Three key elements are designed to keep customers better informed and safer during wildfire events:
- Real-time Ring wildfire alerts powered by Watch Duty, based on nearby fire activity with built-in safety buffers.
- AI-powered smoke and fire detection, automatically analyzed from video from Ring Protect subscribers to surface early warning signs and enable quick action.
- Optional, secure sharing of visual context from Ring cameras within active fire zones to support situational awareness. All sharing is optional and fully controlled by the customer on a case-by-case basis.
Together, these capabilities help deliver early warning signals, improve situational awareness, and bring critical ground truth to those working to protect communities.
A partnership rooted in community
At Watch Duty, our work has always been grounded in humanizing emergency information—turning complex, fast-moving incidents into actionable insights people can trust. Fire Watch builds on that mission by meeting people where they already are, extending Watch Duty alerts into the Ring ecosystem while enabling voluntary, responsible community participation during wildfire events.
Fire Watch features begin rolling out nationwide this spring.
