Wildfire Evacuation Countdown
When a wildfire alert applies to a household’s address, it calculates a leave-by time from the family’s preparation times and assigns medications, pets, and evacuation tasks to specific people.
Families in high-wildfire-risk areas begin by entering their address, household members, pets, vehicles, usual shelters, and roughly how long each person needs to pack routine essentials. The product turns this information into an updatable household evacuation profile. Medications, pet carriers, important documents, charging equipment, and spare keys can be assigned in advance, while older adults, children, and household members without a car can be marked with the assistance they need.
When an evacuation warning or order relevant to the address is issued, the page does more than relay the alert. It combines official zones, road-closure information, and the household’s preparation times to calculate the latest time they should leave. Users first see a large action card: keep packing, load the car and stand by, or leave immediately. Uncertain roads and shelters are explicitly marked for confirmation.
Tasks are then separated by person. One person brings medications and identification, another handles pets and water, and someone else checks the gas, doors and windows, and assistance for neighbors. Every task has only three actions: complete, need help, or cannot complete. A household dashboard then shows who has not responded, which vehicle has left, and who remains at home, preventing the group-chat assumption that someone else handled it.
The first version integrates only official alerts, evacuation zones, and public road-status data. It does not assess fire behavior or route users through closures. Its purpose is to turn the panicked minutes after an alert into an evacuation process with deadlines, clear ownership, and visibility for the whole household.
Why now
On July 22, the Creelman Fire near Ramona triggered evacuation orders and warnings. S1 Searches for “ramona fire” reached 2,000+ and grew 300%; interest had already declined by July 23.
Target user
The core user is a multi-person household in a wildfire-prone area. When a warning arrives, family members may be spread across home, school, and work. Coordination is harder when the household includes older adults, children, pets, or people without a car. They need immediate clarity on who is doing what and who has already left, not more incident information.
Minimal entry point
Validate in a single county first, using its official ArcGIS REST services. Query an address point to identify its evacuation zone, then read public warning, order, and lift statuses. Official maps also provide layers for traffic controls and shelters. S2 The household profile uses a structured checklist, and tasks have only three states. The countdown is calculated from user-tested preparation times plus a reserve buffer, with the data update time displayed. Once an evacuation order takes effect, the action card must switch to “leave immediately.” The first release will not predict fire behavior or generate routes through closures.
Punching above its weight
Start with a shareable household evacuation-drill template for one county, along with an official zone lookup link. Reach early households through local Fire Safe Councils, CERT instructors, and pet-rescue organizations. Each drill produces a one-page household role sheet that members can share with neighbors. Run online drill sessions before wildfire season and use actual completion times to help households build their profiles.
Competitors & gaps
- Genasys ProtectGoogle
- Genasys Protect can save addresses and send official alerts based on a user’s location or watched places. It shows evacuation zones, road closures, shelters, animal shelters, and evacuation status. S3 Its strength is answering, “What is happening in my area?” with authoritative information. The gap is execution within a household. It does not track who is responsible for medications, pets, or vehicles, nor show who has not responded. It also does not create a household countdown from each person’s preparation time. The adjacent opportunity is not another incident map, but a layer that responds to changes in official status. When an order arrives, the system should immediately open the preassigned roles. Users should still return to Genasys to verify the original order and map.
- Watch DutyGoogle
- Watch Duty already provides a live wildfire map, verified alerts, fire perimeters, evacuation orders, shelters, and animal shelter information. S4 Users can quickly understand the fire and surrounding conditions, and its coverage is not limited to a single county. Its core product is still public incident awareness, not household coordination. It does not consolidate whether family members packed medications, who is collecting an older relative, or whether pets are in the car on one household dashboard. Nor does it use preparation times from prior drills to set a different leave-by time for each home. The opening is in the minutes after an alert, not the alert itself. The new product must retain an entry point to Watch Duty’s original information rather than present its household task layer as a new assessment of the fire.
How it makes money
Charge an annual household subscription, with the basic profile and drills free. The paid plan adds real-time multi-person coordination, drill history, multiple addresses, and an offline evacuation profile.
The case against
The main risk is that users may mistake an estimated time for official safety guidance. Road data may be delayed, and household-reported preparation times may be inaccurate. A countdown that suggests leaving too late could encourage people to keep packing. Missed notifications or family members who fail to respond could also create a false sense that everyone is safe. Addresses, medications, and member locations are sensitive data, and the consequences of a leak are serious. The product must clearly identify data sources and update times, and official evacuation orders must always override every calculated result. Otherwise, a single incorrect prompt could destroy trust.