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Although he was on the edge of the evacuation order zone, he stayed home with his cats while other reporters covered for him.

鈥淚 was watching on Watch Duty, just like everybody else,鈥� Padmanabhan said. 鈥淚 had the scanner and our Slack channels, but still, it was a very surreal experience.鈥�

He was even to share his accounts as a Watch Duty employee who was also witnessing the fire grow.

Living through a wildfire firsthand and relying on Watch Duty to help him make decisions made him value the nonprofit service even more.

鈥淲hat we want to do is give people enough information that鈥檚 correct, that they can do something with when things are happening, because you don鈥檛 always think clearly in an emergency,鈥� he said.

While Padmanabhan鈥檚 home survived, he said, 鈥渆verybody I knew, knew somebody who lost something鈥濃�攈is niece鈥檚 classmates lost homes in the Palisades, his sister鈥檚 friend鈥檚 restaurant burned down in Malibu, and his girlfriend鈥檚 doctor鈥檚 office burned down in Altadena.   

His job carries immense responsibility because not only does Watch Duty serve the general public, it also serves the first responders who use it when risking their lives. In just one night during the January wildfires, 600,000 new users signed up.

Watch Duty, which launched in August 2021, currently provides service to the Western half of the U.S., covering 22 states, and is staffed by 20 full-time employees, including reporters and engineers, and 300 volunteers, including firefighters, dispatchers, and first responders. 聽

For its role as a lifesaver, Watch Duty was recently named one of in the Pioneer category and received a in the Social Impact category.

Padmanabhan said it鈥檚 gratifying to be recognized by these organizations for 鈥渄oing this kind of, what I call, public service journalism.鈥� More importantly, he鈥檚 grateful for the increased awareness and downloads of the app.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been very rewarding to know that we have definitely helped people, given people extra time to get out, grab their pets, grab things they need, and be able to make informed decisions,鈥� Padmanabhan said.

Padmanabhan, who is nine credits away from graduating and becoming one of the first alumni of the Department of Journalism鈥檚 online science and technology journalism program, focused his master鈥檚 project on fire science and fire ecology. Specifically, he spoke with scientists who have studied pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which are commonly associated with wildfires.

鈥淏asically, they鈥檙e thunderstorms that are generated by the fire,鈥� he explained. 鈥淵ou may have heard something like fires can generate their own weather. Well, that鈥檚 what these are, and they can produce their own lightning, and rain, and all sorts of [phenomena].

鈥淭hey produce these giant columns; some are up to 50,000 feet [and] can be seen from space,鈥� he continued. 鈥淓ven some of the smaller ones, when they collapse, when they go back down, they can throw a lot of wind out in all directions, which is dangerous for the firefighters on the ground and residents because you can鈥檛 predict it.鈥�

Last semester, Padmanabhan wrote a 3,000-word article after interviewing scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, Australia. These scientists are working on predicting and modeling pyrocumulonimbus events so that fire managers will have a better idea of what鈥檚 coming.

鈥淚t really brought me back to what I love doing, which is getting this information out to the public,鈥� he said.