Wildfire Summer 2024: FireAlert App Aids Containment
Dear Sir or Madam,
Wildfire reports from Greece, California, and Canada dominate the media. Once a fire spreads extensively, it becomes difficult to control. However, there is hope in the fight against wildfires: the FireAlert App by Plant-for-the-Planet offers early warning notifications directly to smartphones and has already proven to be a crucial tool for early intervention.
The frequency and intensity of extreme forest fires have more than doubled worldwide in the past 20 years.¹
The FireAlert App by Plant-for-the-Planet reports wildfires worldwide in real-time.
One year after its launch, it monitors a forest area 1.2 times the size of Brazil.
Felix Finkbeiner is available for interviews.
Plant-for-the-Planet’s FireAlert App provides free and real-time wildfire notifications based on NASA and ESA satellite data directly to smartphones, SMS, WhatsApp and Email. So far, users in over 110 countries are monitoring areas of more than 1 billion hectares.
Effective fire management is essential to halt forest loss by 2030, as agreed upon at the 2021 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow. However, the opposite trend is currently being observed: wildfires are continuing to increase due to the climate crisis. In addition to the direct loss of forest, global wildfires emitted 33.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide from 2001 to 2022.² This is almost equivalent to the total global CO₂ emissions per year.³
The FireAlert App enables government authorities, NGOs, and forest owners to detect and combat fires more quickly. Especially in regions without professional early warning systems, the app provides significant value. Felix Finkbeiner, founder of Plant-for-the-Planet, developed the app with the Plant-for-the-Planet software team to fight forest fires at their own project sites in Mexico, Ghana, and Spain. To maximize its impact, Plant-for-the-Planet is offering the app free of charge. This is crucial for NGOs, as they do not have budgets for expensive software products.
“FireAlert is the first app that can alert on your mobile device any hotspot in the areas that you have selected. Just amazing and quick instead of monitoring different platforms continuously. Congratulations for the initiative and keep up the good work”, says Felipe Alarcón, Leader Wildfire Functional Training, Chile.
“In the face of recent fire incidents near our project sites, the FireAlert App has proven to be an indispensable asset. Its ability to convey timely alerts through SMS, especially in areas with limited internet connectivity, has greatly supported our restoration work. The app's real-time notifications within a 1 km radius provide us with a crucial edge in responding promptly to potential threats”, says Julius Sila, Community Based Environmental Conservation (COBEC), Kenya.
The FireAlert App is available in the Google Play Store and the App Store. For more information, visit our homepage or watch our video, that explains the functionality of the app.
Available soon: Worlds Nature Reserves Pre-registered in the App
Protecting the world's nature reserves is our largest priority. They will soon be pre-registered in the app. Users can then simply search for nature reserves, such as "Yellowstone National Park" or "Balam-Kú", and set up fire monitoring within seconds.
For the further development and improvement of the FireAlert App, Plant-for-the-Planet is continuously seeking funding opportunities. Interested companies, organizations, or government agencies that wish to join us in combating wildfires are welcome to get in touch with us.
For questions or to arrange an interview with Felix Finkbeiner, please contact:
¹Cunningham, C., Williamson, G. & Bowman, D. (2024, June 24). Increasing frequency and intensity of the most extreme wildfires on Earth. Nature Ecology & Evolution
²You, X. et al. (2023, December 20). Surge in extreme forest fires fuels global emissions. Nature
