Wildfire alerts in California

In California, wildfire information comes from several agencies at once. Which one is in charge of a fire depends on whose land it's burning on, and evacuation decisions are made locally. Knowing who does what makes it much easier to find the right source when there's smoke on the horizon.

Who's responsible for what

Firefighting responsibility in California is split three ways (Legislative Analyst's Office). CAL FIRE leads on the State Responsibility Area, nearly a third of the state. Federal agencies, the US Forest Service and the Interior Department's US Wildland Fire Service, lead on federal land, about half the state. City and county fire departments cover the rest, about 15%, mainly cities and towns. On a big fire they all work together, often under a unified command.

For the alerts that matter most to you, a few roles stand out:

• Fire agencies report the incident: its name, size, containment and updates. CAL FIRE posts fires it responds to on its incidents page. Larger or longer fires, especially on federal land, get a page on InciWeb.
• The National Weather Service issues Fire Weather Watches and Red Flag Warnings when wind, low humidity and dry fuels make fast-spreading fires likely (NWS). These are about fire risk, before any fire exists.
• County sheriffs and local officials issue evacuation warnings and orders, and send local emergency alerts.

Evacuation terms

California uses standard terms statewide (Cal OES):

Many counties divide their area into numbered evacuation zones, so orders name zones rather than streets. Find your zone before fire season. Several counties publish zones through Genasys Protect (formerly Zonehaven). Cal OES also combines county evacuation zones and their status into a statewide map layer. Not every county is included, so your county's emergency website is the reference.

How to get the alerts

Official channels come first.

• County emergency alerts. According to Cal OES, every California county offers free emergency alerts by text, call or email. CalAlerts.org links to the sign-up for each county. This is the most direct way to hear about evacuation orders for your zone. Sign up for every address that matters to you, such as home, work and a relative's place.
• Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). Local officials can send evacuation messages to every phone in an area, with no sign-up. Keep emergency alerts turned on in your phone's settings.
• AwareCA. The state's AwareCA app, which it describes as California's official public safety app, carries agency-verified incident information.
• Local radio and TV relay orders during large fires.
• Fire updates come from the CAL FIRE incidents page, InciWeb and the agencies' social media accounts.

For smoke, which can reach far beyond the fire, check the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map for air quality where you are.

Reading fire maps during an incident

Maps mix several kinds of data. Perimeters are mapped outlines with a timestamp and may be hours old. Satellite hotspots are heat detections over large pixels, useful but imprecise. Incident pins show the reported location and size. None of them tells you whether your street is under an order. Only the county alert or official evacuation map can. Our guide to where wildfire map data comes from explains each layer.

Where Herebeat fits

Herebeat puts US wildfires from the interagency WFIGS data on one map with official NWS alerts, including Red Flag Warnings, for the places you save, each labeled with its source and the time it was last reported. It can help you keep an eye on several California places at once. It doesn't issue or relay evacuation orders and isn't an emergency service. For leaving or staying, follow your county's alerts and local officials.

Before the next Red Flag day

Sign up for county alerts and know your zone. Pack a go-bag, plan two ways out of your neighbourhood, and decide in advance where you'd go. Clear dry vegetation around your home. CAL FIRE's Ready for Wildfire site has checklists for defensible space and evacuation planning.