Ring's Fire Watch Uses AI to Help Firefighters Save Homes

When Jamie Siminoff's former garage burned down in the Palisades Fire, he didn't just grieve. He built something that could prevent others from losing everything too.

Ring just launched Fire Watch, a new safety feature that helps firefighters see wildfires as they spread in real time. The tool turns everyday doorbell cameras into an emergency detection network that spots embers, smoke, and flames before they become disasters.

Siminoff lived in Pacific Palisades for 18 years. That garage where his home security company started is now ash, along with roughly 6,800 other buildings destroyed in the January 2025 fires.

During those terrifying days, Siminoff spent hours in his old neighborhood trying to help. He kept hitting the same wall: nobody had current information about where fires were jumping or which streets needed help most.

Ring had over 10,000 cameras in the area when disaster struck. The potential was clear, but there was no system to harness it.

Fire Watch fixes that gap. When wildfires ignite nearby, Ring users get an alert asking if they want to opt in and share their camera feeds with first responders and the nonprofit Watch Duty.

Artificial intelligence scans the footage to build a live map showing exactly where embers are landing and new fires are starting. Firefighters can deploy resources faster and catch spot fires before they grow.

The Ripple Effect

The Palisades Fire took 24 days to contain and claimed 12 lives across 23,000 acres. Siminoff believes this system could have saved structures and possibly lives if it had existed then.

Now communities across fire-prone areas can turn their security cameras into an early warning system. The feature lives in the Neighbors section of the Ring app, and participation is always voluntary.

When disaster strikes, people want to help their neighbors. Fire Watch gives them a way to do exactly that.