When fires are close to us, we are looking for information maybe besides what we get from the local news outlets. 

I use 3 sources that I access from my laptop. Sometimes I make a phone call to a few of my friends who also track fire activity. The three sources are;

InciWeb the Incident Information System: Current Incidents This sources will give you current information if an incident management team is assigned. The teams normally update the information twice a day. A map will appear and you can zoom in and click on the incident you are looking for or in the top right-hand corner of the page you can search by state or name of the incident.

The second source is the IMSR (incident management situation report) that is published every morning by the National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise around 0630 local time. It covers information from across the US. in a short snippet of information about the fires.   sitreprt.pdf

The last source is an app called Watch Duty. You can download the app for free and it will track fires locally as well as across the US. The app draws its information from the IMSR and other local input. NOTE: you may not want to have the notification setting on unless you are close to a fire as it will ping a lot.  Watch Duty - Wildfire Maps & Alerts