COLUMBIA, S.C. — The SC Forestry Commission is simplifying their services with an all new app.
Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones told Street Squad that their website is not currently mobile friendly and this app will help you to access information quickly and in one place.
“The benefit of the app is that its easy to use, its very straightforward, we hope- and you can see where we have wildfires currently in the state, if we know what caused the wild fire, whether we’re on scene or we’re on the way to the fire, whether we’ve finished with the fire, what county its in," Chief Jones says, "The public a lot of times gets concerned when smell smoke or want to make sure there’s no threats… so this is one way they can figure out if there’s a threat or how close a fire is or what we’re doing.”
“So in the app you can see our current wildfires, whether we’re dispatched-the red icon means that we’re on the way, we’ve been dispatched to the fire, we know about it. The orange one means we’re on the way, yellow means we’re on the scene and green is when we’ve got the fire controlled or contained where its not likely to spread anymore. You can quickly see the status, how many we have in the whole state, or how many we have that are uncontained," Jones demonstrates.
Along with wildfires, you can see prescribed burn locations, weather conditions from the national weather service and quick contact information for Forestry Commission.
For example, you go outside to check your mail and you smell smoke- just hop on the app, look and see if there is a wildfire or prescribed fire going on nearby. It’s an easy way to obtain information and stay safe.
To download the app go to your Apple Store or Google Store and type in "S.C. Forestry Commission." To see a full tutorial, go to the SC Forestry Commissions website.
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