LOS ANGELES – Firefighters scrambled Monday to mop up hot spots from three Southern California wildfires before an expected return of high winds that could rekindle smoldering embers.
The National Weather Service (search) forecast hot, dry winds with gusts of 50 mph for late Monday through Wednesday in Ventura, Los Angeles and southern Santa Barbara counties.
An 1,100-acre fire in rugged terrain in Burbank was 70 percent contained, said Capt. Ron Bell of the Burbank Fire Department (search).
"We're up there ... trying to get all the hot spots around the edges taken care of before these winds kick in this afternoon," he said.
Residents evacuated from about 70 homes in Sunset Canyon (search) were able to return over the weekend.
The region's largest blaze, at more than 24,000 acres on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, was 85 percent contained, said Inspector Ron Haralson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department (search).
Haralson said he was worried about the weather forecast.
"You have to have a watchful eye over the whole area right now," he said.
Farther east, in San Bernardino County (search), a 935-acre fire was 78 percent contained, said Carol Beckley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service (search). That fire was burning in steep terrain in and around San Bernardino National Forest (search), about 70 miles east of Los Angeles.
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