We are radio operators, firefighters, designers, makers and engineers.
Cole Euken, a resident of Lake County, has been reporting on fires since late 2015, shortly after the Valley Fire ravaged his hometown of Middletown. Besides reporting Cole is also a freelance fire/emergency service photographer who travels around the region capturing and reporting on incidents as they unfold.
Don retired from the Fire Service in 2018, following a career spanning 36 years as a Firefighter, Engineer, Paramedic, Structural Collapse/Confined Space Technician, and Field Training Officer with fire agencies in California and Oregon. Over the course of his career, Don was deployed on numerous wildland fires in both states. Prior to beginning his career, he served as a volunteer firefighter in Riverside County, California in the late 70’s-early 80’s. Now residing in northern Nevada, Don helped form Eastern Sierra Fire & Ice on Facebook, reporting on fires and weather-related events in and around northwestern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra region of California. In retirement, Don and his wife also founded an animal rescue and sanctuary for turtles and tortoises.
Jennifer has been reporting on fires for over 9 years after her family became a victim to the Carlton Complex Fire in 2014. Since then she has started her Facebook page My Storm and Fire Info, became a storm spotter with SkyWarn through the NWS, took a NASA ARSET class "Satellite Observations and Tools for Fire Risk, Detection, and Analysis", plus currently studying for her HAM license. Jennifer studied and received her BA Accounting degree but shifted gears after coming home from the office. Now she focuses on supporting her firefighter husband, family, and notifying her community of fire and storm events.
Katlyn currently lives in the PNW, having grown up in the San Juan Islands. She was introduced to fire 4 years ago by her partner, a tenured WLFF, and has been monitoring and researching fires from Washington to California since. She is diligent about providing accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information to best serve the Evergreen state she loves.
Liam Winstead runs @SDCountyFires on Twitter and Brush Fire Partyline / San Diego North County on Facebook. He’s a lifelong San Diegan and is studying Real Estate & Development and Urban Studies & Planning at UC San Diego.
Michael Silvester, aka CA Fire Scanner, has been reporting on wildfires in California for six fire seasons. He is based in New Zealand, so you may see more of his coverage on the night shift.
Sekhar Padmanabhan, aka barkflight, began covering fires and other breaking news in the early 2000s as a newspaper reporter. A lifelong Californian, he now reports on wildfires across the state on social media and his website. Sekhar serves as staff to three cats and has a bachelor's degree in communications.
Adam is a Colorado native and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Natural Resources. He has been reporting fires to the Colorado Wildfire Information Facebook page since the High Park Fire in 2012.
Originating from Ventura County, Adam has been following wildfires for multiple years which brought him to the scenic Central Coast, where he pursues a degree in Forestry and Fire Science at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. During peak wildfire season, Adam works for the Forest Service as a wildland firefighter on the Los Padres National Forest.
Benjamin Kuo, aka AI6YR, has been tracking wildfires and disasters on social media since 2017, also is an amateur radio operator, and has experience in GIS/mapping and software development. He also teaches Wilderness First Aid and GIS at a local university, and runs his own online business in the technology world, among other activities. Ben is also internationally known for having found and enabled the rescue of a lost hiker, using only a selfie of that hiker’s feet.
Billy has been a HAM radio operator for 30 years and listening to scanners since the age of 10. He is in involved with his local emergency management teams in Northern California and is now reporting for Watch Duty.
Brendan MacGyver is a lifelong San Diegan who lives in North County and was previously in the Fire Service. He is now an airline pilot and enjoys spending his time with family, camping, skiing, and giving back to his community through Watch Duty.
Brendan is based in King Co. Washington, monitoring all of Washington. You can also find him monitoring Central & Western Montana as he has family there. He is an Assitant Fire Marshal with Eastside Fire & Rescue with 25+ years in the Fire Service.
Brent currently resides in the Northern Sacramento Valley and is a former resident of the Paradise area. After having spent a number of years as a Red Cross Disaster Volunteer, notably during wildfires, Brent now assists with reporting on fires for Watch Duty across the Western States. He also enjoys beekeeping as a hobby.
Bruce Suenram has worked in the field of fire protection and prevention since 1969. He retired as Deputy Chief of the Fire & Aviation Bureau of MT Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in December of 2018. He administered the preparedness activities of the Bureau such as training, fire prevention, fire investigation, GIS, assessments, information technology, and equipment development.
Bruce served as Montana’s State Fire Marshal (1992-1997), as chief of the Missoula Rural Fire District (1980-1992), and as the chief of the Kelseyville, CA, Fire Protection District (1974-1980).
He is currently red carded as an Assistant Area Commander, Plans. He served as an Incident Commander for a Type II Incident Management Team for 8 years. Bruce is also qualified as a Type 1 Planning Section Chief.
After surviving the Tubbs Fire in CA and Almeda Fire in OR, Charlie knew she could use her five years of fire monitoring experience to fill the need for immediate and accurate fire reporting in Southern Oregon. Charlie started the Jackson County Fire Watch Facebook group to keep the community updated and informed with breaking fire details and to help alleviate some of the mutual stresses and uncertainties of fire season. She is happy to help Watch Duty expand to Oregon!
Chase Wink is a Business Administration & Fire Technology student reporting on public safety incidents since 2021. He operates his Facebook page @Chasin_Fire and moderates many local Facebook groups in Northern California and Lake County.
Corey Edwards, longtime resident of Napa Valley, has been reporting on fires for five years. When not monitoring active fires, Corey runs Napa Valley Fire and Police page, manages a computer repair business, minds his garden and tends to Patches, the elder stateswoman of his cat posse.
Damian Bouné lives in a remote region of Sonoma County and has been providing fire and emergency-related information to his community since 2017. He is an excellent resource for building radio resource resilience and sophisticated mapping tools. He is passionate about building risk-informed communities, and frequently leaves his remote family homestead to provide the community with the tools to do so.
Danilla Sands lives in Mendocino County and has been working in disaster related services since 2015. She started to relay fire information in 2015, but more specifically since 2017. She helps manage a community emergency information Facebook group. Reporter and photographer for Mendocino Action News and other news outlets as needed.
David spent 35 years with a large southern California fire department, retiring as a Captain. He brings extensive wildfire and emergency management experience to Watch Duty and reports on fires throughout our coverage area.
Donovan has been reporting on fires for the last 2 years serving the Sierra foothills in delivering fast and accurate fire information on Twitter and now here on Watch Duty. He is also a fire photographer capturing fire incidents and reporting on them as they progress.
Evan Jacobs lives in West Sonoma County and has been providing information on fires for three years. He is also a volunteer firefighter and a freelance fire photographer.
Grant has been living and reporting on the weather and nearby disasters in Ventura County, California for the past 10 years. While the main focus of his website and social media page is weather information, it also carries updates on local emergencies that impact the residents of Ventura County. Grant is also a HAM Radio Operator and works as a broadcast engineer for a well-known national television network.
Jaimee is an Arizona native, and grew up in rural Pima County. After the back-to-back Sawmill and Mulberry Fires impacted her home in 2017, she was frustrated with the slow flow of information, particularly for residents in rural areas. She began seeking out resources to educate herself, and has been monitoring and reporting on wildfires for her friends and family ever since. In 2023, she wanted a more centralized way of sharing this information, and so she created a Facebook group dedicated to wildfire, weather, and emergency information for southeastern Arizona called SE Arizona Wildfire and Incidents (Pima, Cochise, & Santa Cruz Counties).
Jess started reporting on fires after surviving the Almeda fire that devastated Jackson County, Oregon. She found the Jackson County Firewatch group on Facebook and started contributing to the reporting there. Soon after, Charlie Moon invited her to be a moderator for the group and they have been reporting together ever since. This will be her 3rd year reporting. She is our group's resident night owl, so you will most likely see her reports late at night.
Jessi worked on the Warner Mountain fire lookout in the 90's and that spark of fascination with fire and weather never completely went out after leaving the fire service. She was an emergency dispatcher and freelance writer before founding her own fine jewelry company. The 2020 fires in Oregon were a wakeup call about the increased wildfire danger to the state, and how inadequate public communications were (and are). She made it her mission not to be caught unaware again and began seeking tools to track fires and relay information to the public.
Currently scanning Linn County in the Brownsville/Harrisburg/Shedd/Lebanon areas and helping report on the Willamette Valley, South Cascades and Central Oregon. She's also a Skywarn spotter for NWS and is media credentialed to enter disaster areas in Oregon.
Joseph Ziegler, a proud native of Oregon living in Roseburg. He is the owner of The Roseburg Receiver group on Facebook and serves as a vital asset for the Douglas County community, offering invaluable radio feeds and timely incident updates. Joseph is a senior applications developer in the tech industry and leverages his technical expertise by providing incident automation to inform the community quickly and accurately.
Josh Leone, a 3rd generation resident of the Russian River, is known for his reporting on fires, floods and other disasters. He is a weather watcher, a community resource for extreme weather and fire information, and loves camping with his family. He helps to manage the Russian River Resources and Information Facebook page and the Sonoma County Fire Updates page.
A long time horse owner, Ham/scanner enthusiast & animal rescue volunteer, Juli became actively involved in her local CERT and large animal evacuation teams after volunteering to care for displaced animals during the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa. In 2020, Juli’s town of Boulder Creek was impacted by the CZU Lightning Complex fire, which strengthened her resolve to be part of the solution during wildfire events. She now lives in Carmel, California and reports on BEU/CZU events for Watch Duty.
Justin, based in Cathlamet, WA, grew up in California and was exposed to emergency services at an early age with several family members now retired from CalFire. Justin is a former 911 dispatcher and law enforcement officer and previously served on the board at Multnomah County Emergency Communications in Portland. He is currently an EMT/Firefighter and Lieutenant of EMS training with Cathlamet Fire Department.
Also know as Bigsurkate, she lives in a remote area of Big Sur on the South Coast. She has been covering fires, floods, road closures, and local events since 2008 on her blog. She is passionate about Big Sur and protecting it and is or has been involved in many community organizations that share that goal.
Although she was born and raised in Hawai’i, Marty is now based in Quincy, California, where she volunteers as chair of the Plumas County VOAD. Marty is a master of disaster but also trains bankers on how to manage environmental and climate financial risks.
Matthew has been reporting fires in Riverside County since 2017, and ran @RVCFires on Twitter. He works in the aviation industry.
Maureen Bonessa, aka MoBones, has been reporting on fires in Glenn and Tehama counties for 8 years. She manages the NorCalFireWeather page on Facebook, covering fires, weather, news and other relevant information. In addition to top-notch fire reporting, she is an accomplished photographer and equestrian. Maureen lives in Red Bluff.
Michael Steinberg is a freelance videographer for Live Storms Media and a fire photographer. He started reporting on wildfires in 2021 after family was impacted by the Carr/Camp fires. Michael is based in Chico and attends CSU Chico, majoring in Physical Geography.
Michelle has been reporting fires in Oregon and Northern California since 2015 although she has been an avid radio scanner her whole life. Her father spent his career at CALFIRE which led to her interest and hyper awareness to fire season.
Noah lives in the Spokane Area and is a volunteer with a local fire district. Noah begain tweeting fire info in 2011 under the name Spokane Fire News. Noah has served as a volunteer with Incident Management teams across the US covering fires such as Barry Point, Big Windy, Cougar Creek and others. He enjoys fire and weather photography, fishing, and working with computers.
Patricia Jacobs (Trisha) moved to California 30+ years ago, where she experienced her first wildfire and evacuation. Over the last decades, Trisha has been living and working in the Central Sierra Nevada foothills while raising her two kids. She monitors and reports on wildfires and emergencies as a reporter for Sierra News Online, through Facebook, her Twitter @trishaswcfirewx, and now Watch Duty. Trisha believes in providing fast, accurate information from official sources to empower communities.
Sara Paul is a certified community wildfire mitigation specialist and a fire reporter. She’s managed the Sonoma County Fire Updates Facebook group, a resource for vegetation fires, threatening weather and evacuation preparedness, since 2017. She’s on the board of Safer West County, active in Fire Safe Monte Rio and is involved in the West County GMRS project, educating the community about emergency communications.
Sara holds FEMA IS-100 Incident Command, FEMA IS-29 PIO Awareness, and FEMA IS-4 Social Media in Emergency Management certifications, as well as Community Wildfire Mitigation Best Practices certification (through Coalitions & Collaboratives) and Wildland Fire Assessment Program (WFAP) certification (through Fire Safe Sonoma).
Shannon divides her time between San Jose, California, and Pioneer in Amador County. She holds a degree in journalism from California State University, Fullerton. After working as a reporter, she transitioned into teaching while staying actively engaged in community reporting. During times of heightened urgency, she diligently monitors radio scanner activity to help keep the community informed.
Shannon Mahorney lives at the base of the Marble Mountains in Siskiyou County and established Siskiyou Alerts to fill the void in local news regarding emergencies. Siskiyou Alerts is known as a great source of up-to-the-minute fire info.
Steven Effisimo was born and raised in the Bay Area. In 2017 he moved to the Sierra Foothills of beautiful Tuolumne County, where he began documenting first responders in 2021. He has also become a local freelance photojournalist and runs the @Tuolumnecountycode3 page on Instagram. Once he discovered Watch Duty he knew he had to become apart of the team. Finally, he is an avid Bay Area sports fan
Tamanee has lived in the Madera County Central Sierra foothills for the last 20 years. As such, she has experienced multiple wildland fires. She has also been an avid scanner listener since she was a small child. During the Creek Fire in 2020 (one of California’s largest fires at 380,000 acres) she found the need to learn about different resources to monitor fires that rapidly expanded beyond just scanner traffic. The next problem she encountered was getting the information she was learning about a fire out to her immediate community. General social media sites and news media outlets weren’t sufficient in disseminating fast, easy useful information. Thus, when she found out about Watch Duty, it became the perfect platform for her to assist her community in a meaningful, fast, and accurate direct way.
Todd Phillips began his public safety career in 1986. He’s retired now after serving as a 911 Dispatcher, volunteer firefighter, search & rescue team member, deputy sheriff, Parent Project® Instructor & Facilitator, and DA’s office criminal investigator. Todd is part of the team who has ears on Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Benito, and Monterey Counties.
Todd holds FEMA IS-29.a (Social Media in Emergency Management), IS-42.a (Public Information Officer Awareness), IS-100.c (Introduction to ICS), and IS-700.b (Introduction to NIMS) certifications.
Zak is based in Flagstaff and brings Watch Duty’s coverage into Northern Arizona. During the 2022 firestorms Zak noticed a lack of centralized info in the Flagstaff area and began informing his neighbors and community on Twitter and has been doing it ever since.
