Wildfires in France are escalating.

For Sapeurs-Pompiers de France, early detection is critical.
But even with surveillance cameras across forests, there simply aren’t enough human eyes to monitor them in real time.

At the same time, Twitch creators gather massive, loyal communities every day. Before each live stream begins, thousands of viewers spend 5 to 10 minutes watching a static “Starting Soon” screen.

That moment is intimate.
It belongs to the creator and their community.

The challenge wasn’t only to raise awareness.
It was to activate a generation through the people they trust most: creators.

We invited Twitch creators to turn their “Starting Soon” screens into live wildfire watch missions.

Instead of waiting passively, their communities helped monitor real forest feeds.

Together, they became FireCatchers.

Insight

On Twitch, the relationship between creators and their communities is participative, not passive.

Viewers don’t just consume.
They react. They moderate. They collaborate. They solve together.

Gamers are trained to detect subtle movement and visual anomalies.
Spotting change is part of their instinct.

Wildfire detection requires exactly that skill — at the right moment.

Strategy

Rather than running a campaign on Twitch, we partnered with creators as operational allies.

We didn’t interrupt their content.
We embedded the mission inside their ritual.

Creators introduced the initiative in their own tone, explaining the cause to their audience.
Their communities didn’t feel recruited by a brand.
They felt mobilized by their streamer.

The creators weren’t media channels.
They were leaders of a collective vigilance system.

The pilot launched in July 2025 with four major French Twitch creators.

They replaced their “Starting Soon” screens with live surveillance feeds from high-risk forest zones in Hérault.

Each creator activated their community in their own voice:

• Explaining what to look for
• Encouraging vigilance
• Celebrating collective alerts

The mechanic was simple:

• Watch the forest feed while waiting.
• Type the camera number in the chat if smoke appears.
• When multiple viewers flagged the same camera, the alert was escalated to emergency services (CODIS).

Clear visual cues reduced false positives.
Moderation teams ensured responsible participation.

The initiative quickly spread organically.
786 additional streamers joined voluntarily.

FireCatchers became a creator-led movement, not a brand campaign.

• 600,000 cumulative followers mobilised
• 2,190 hours of live surveillance generated
• 5 fires detected
• 1,700 additional hectares protected vs 2024

Beyond numbers, the impact was cultural:

Creators transformed entertainment into public service.
Communities became operational contributors.

What began as a pilot is now expanding nationally — and will be adopted by Greece and Slovenia in 2026.

FireCatchers demonstrated the true power of creator culture:
when creators lead, audiences act.