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Twitter Users Tracking the Latest California Fire News

by Tim Stevens on October 23, 2007 at 10:00 AM

Titter Users Track So Cal FireSouthern Californians near San Diego are currently in the midst of a massive and (largely) out of control wildfire destroying houses and displacing many residents. When you're near such a spreading and unpredictable disaster, staying informed is about the most important thing you can do. Some posts made by users of the instant-status-update site Twitter are helping some keep ahead of the flames.

According to 'Wired,' two users, Nate Ritter and Viss, are using the site to post updates about the fire's progress, ordered evacuations, police presence, and traffic problems. The two are even posting pictures online of the events happening in and around the turmoil. This is an interesting change of intent for the Twitter, which is typically host to banal updates about where someone is or what they're doing right now, updates that may or may not be interesting, but that certainly won't save your life.

Nate and Viss are using the identifier #sandiegofire for their updates, and if you're the SMS type, you can send the message "track sandiegofire" to 40404 and get updates straight to your phone.

From Wired

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Tags: Disaster Tech, Disasters, DisasterTech, Flickr, Twitter

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