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Wondering if that smoke in the air is cause for concern? Or just want to make sure you’re the first to know if flames do break out near your home?

Last week the Forest Service debuted a new website where residents can input their location and automatically receive real-time notifications about wildfires that break out in their area.

Then, the tool allows the user to follow any fire that has started within their area of interest, providing the option of text and email updates.

“The overall idea was to give people a source of data when a fire is in your back yard,” said Ben Butler, a GIS specialist with the Forest Service who created the tool. “We wanted to expose the data we have.”

While information about bigger fires tends to be plentiful, the application aims to provide information within the first 24 hours of a fire start, which is usually when such updates are hard to find.

After signing up for the online tool, a user can choose multiple areas of interest and can monitor fires as far as 20 miles away. When a user follows a fire, they can view information like the GIS coordinates of the fire start, cause, acreage and status — new, emerging, contained or controlled. Even more information becomes available if a fire gets larger, Butler said.