Google tracks hellish wildfire season in the American West

Google has created the 2012 US Wildfire Crisis Map to dynamically track the four dozen wildfires blazing across the United States, mostly in the West.

The map, built on its Crisis Response platform, is tracking about 50 fires, including the 100,000-acre Clay complex in Utah and the dangerous Waldo Canyon fire that is threatening the city of Colorado Springs. The map tracks the fires themselves, including their extent, information on suppression efforts, evacuation status, and the locations of shelters.