Technology helps track fire progress in southern California

The Los Angeles Times created a Google Maps "mash up" to show the progress of fires and fire containment in southern California. This is a fascinating (and useful) example of how technology can be leveraged to inform the public about important events.

A TinyURL link here will take you to the Google Maps mashup (definition) the Los Angeles Times has made available to the public. For those of us with friends in the general area, it's one of the best, updated-in-realtime, visual depictions of: the fires, where they are, how close they are to being under control, and how much damage they have caused so far in terms of dollars and lives. This is a great example of how interactive news coverage can be, and I hope to see more such tools in the future. I'm surprised this map hasn't received wider web exposure.