New Aware California app joins the fire-alert field Play

First came PulsePoint, then Watch Duty, then the Alert California app and the network of mountaintop fire cameras. Now comes a fourth app that attempts to tie everything together.

L.A. County Fire is among the fire departments behind the app, called Aware California, or AwareCA. It is designed as California's statewide public safety information platform, meant to provide the public with authoritative information from fire departments. L.A. County Fire, L.A. City Fire, Santa Monica Fire, and Ventura County Fire have all signed on.

The free mobile app provides incident information and maps and will alert you when something is happening near your house or up to 10 other locations you can program in. Users can decide what they want to be notified about and how often.

How is this different from Watch Duty? We have experience with both government notifications and Watch Duty, and Watch Duty will still be much faster. Waiting for official word to be pushed out by public information officers always takes time at moments when seconds matter.

Aware California may grow into a fast system, but over 40 years of doing this, we've found that anytime you wait for government to act quickly during an emergency, you can expect to be disappointed. We will see.

AwareCA is available at the App Store and other places you obtain apps for your phone.