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Friday, February 7, 2025

LA Wildfires: How a GOES App Developer Turned Crisis Into Innovation

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Tech and Disaster: How Survival Apps Are Becoming Essential in a Changing Climate

The devastating Sunset Fire raging through Los Angeles, claiming at least 24 lives and destroying thousands of homes, has unexpectedly thrust a pair of innovative apps into the spotlight. These apps, initially designed for outdoor adventurers and remote aid workers, are proving their unexpected value as vital tools for urban survival during the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-change-fueled disasters. The experience of Viktor Makarskyy, a tech executive who found himself caught in the unfolding crisis, vividly illustrates the crucial role technology is playing in navigating these increasingly perilous times – a testament to the urgent need for both disaster preparedness and innovative technological solutions.

Key Takeaways: Why This Matters

  • The Rise of Disaster Preparedness Apps: The Sunset Fire has highlighted the burgeoning need and market for apps that provide real-time information and critical resources during emergencies. Apps like GOES and Watch Duty are experiencing explosive growth, showcasing how technology can bridge crucial information gaps in times of crisis.
  • Hyperlocal Data is Crucial: The article emphasizes the significance of hyperlocal data, highlighting how GOES provided a far more accurate assessment of air quality than broader weather apps, underscoring the critical nature of location-based information during an emergency.
  • Beyond Adventure: Apps originally designed for outdoor enthusiasts are finding a new purpose in urban environments, demonstrating the adaptability and increasing relevance of technology in disaster response and preparedness for a wider population.
  • A $20 Billion+ Loss: The economic impact is staggering, with the California wildfires projected to result in over $20 billion in insurance losses, according to Wells Fargo’s Elyse Greenspan, furthering the urgency for improved preparedness and mitigation strategies.

The Sunset Fire and the Urgent Need for Preparedness

The Sunset Fire, which began on January 8th, 2025, serves as a stark reminder of the increasing threat of catastrophic wildfires fueled by climate change. The rapid spread of the fire, the scale of destruction, and the tragic loss of life highlight the urgent need for better disaster preparedness and response strategies. For Viktor Makarskyy, head of technology at GOES, a health and safety app, this exigency became profoundly personal.

Returning from an anniversary trip, Makarskyy found himself watching the fire spread towards his home from the airplane window. “It’s one thing to see pictures online,” he said, “it’s another thing to see it out the plane window and to have this multisensory experience of your cabin smelling like smoke as you land. It was like entering a war zone.” His experience underscored the limitations of traditional emergency response systems in the face of widespread disaster and the emergent value of readily accessible, reliable information.

GOES: From Wilderness Medicine to Urban Survival

GOES, or Global Outdoor Emergency Support, initially focused on providing health advice and services for travelers and outdoor enthusiasts, particularly in remote areas. Equipped with offline access to crucial information on everything from altitude sickness to hypothermia, the app offers a comprehensive digital survival kit. Dr. Grant Lipman, a former Stanford professor, launched the platform after treating a hiker severely injured by a rattlesnake bite, emphasizing a need to make wilderness medicine more accessible.

But the app’s capabilities extended far beyond their original scope. The Sunset Fire dramatically increased its usage, with an 800% spike in use in the Los Angeles area since January 6th and tripled new user growth in California over the past two weeks. This highlights how the app has become an essential resource in urban settings coping with large – scale emergencies. Makarskyy himself relied on GOES to check air quality, national alerts and wildfire preparedness guides. He noted that while general weather apps showed Los Angeles’ air quality as “moderate,” the more precise, hyperlocal data within GOES revealed a far more dire situation – underscoring the app’s critical role in providing accurate, real-time information at a local level.

Watch Duty: Firefighters’ Response to Crisis

Another app experiencing a surge in popularity is Watch Duty, developed by firefighters, dispatchers, and first responders specifically for wildfire incident management. Within the chaos of the Sunset Fire, Watch Duty proved invaluable, providing residents with location-specific information about the fire’s spread, evacuation zones, and power outages. The app’s functionality reflects the vital role of information dissemination during emergencies. “Our systems remain 100% operational while our radio operators sleep in shifts and our engineers are throwing everything they have at it to sustain up to 100,000 requests per second with an average response time of <20 ms,” the app announced on X (formerly Twitter), highlighting the immense scale of demand and the team’s dedication to maintaining its operation.

Beyond the Apps: The Broader Implications

The success stories of GOES and Watch Duty point to a larger trend: the increasing reliance on technology for emergency preparedness and response. The Sunset Fire’s impact on these specific apps demonstrates a shift in how people access emergency information and resources.

The Changing Landscape of Disaster Response

GOES co-founder Camilo Barcenas emphasizes the fundamental shift in disaster management: “The LA wildfires highlight an acceleration of what we’ve been tracking: the democratization of wilderness medicine for urban survival. When environmental emergencies strike, traditional emergency services and health-care facilities often become overwhelmed or inaccessible.” This statement emphasizes not only the technological evolution but also the growing reliance on self-sufficiency and preparedness in the face of increasingly frequent and severe climate-driven disasters.

The escalating frequency and severity of disasters caused by climate change, including wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes, are forcing a reassessment of traditional emergency response systems. The limitations of traditional infrastructure during large-scale emergencies become vividly apparent during events like the Sunset Fire. These events underscore the critical need for supplementary information dissemination and resource management tools, which these apps successfully provided. These are not simply technologies to supplement existing systems but rather increasingly vital components of the response systems themselves.

The Economic Weight of Disaster

The economic burden of the Sunset Fire is expected to be substantial. Wells Fargo’s Elyse Greenspan projected the California wildfires to result in over $20 billion in insurance losses. This staggering figure underscores the enormous financial cost of these events, adding further weight to the necessity of effective disaster mitigation and preparedness strategies – strategies that, increasingly, will involve the proactive adoption of technology.

The Future of Disaster Preparedness

The Sunset Fire serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing challenges presented by climate change and the increasing need for innovative solutions to ensure safety and preparedness. The success of apps like GOES and Watch Duty provides a glimpse into the future of disaster response, where accessible technology plays a crucial role in bridging the information gap between disaster-stricken communities and emergency response.

While technology alone cannot solve the complexities of climate-induced disasters, it is an increasingly vital component in mitigating their impact. Going forward, investment in and development of technologies like GOES and Watch Duty will be essential in improving preparedness, response, and ultimately, survival.

Article Reference

Lisa Morgan
Lisa Morgan
Lisa Morgan covers the latest developments in technology, from groundbreaking innovations to industry trends.

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