Patrols watched for new fires Sunday following the devastation of three Southern California neighborhoods struck by wind-driven firestorms that destroyed 37 homes and charred thousands of acres of brush. Firefighters warned that until rain comes to the dry mountains that ring the Los Angeles Basin, a return of strong winds from the deserts further inland could bring a replay of fast-moving fires. ``We still have a red flag alert,'' said Roger Millan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. ``We have people on standby. Patrols are out looking for brush fires.'' A brush fire that did an estimated $4.3 million damage in the fashionable hillside suburb of Porter Ranch Friday morning was finally put out Saturday, Millan said. Firefighters combed the burned-over area for hot spots Sunday, he said. Fourteen houses and a mobile home were leveled, 25 other houses were damaged and 3,200 acres of brush was charred, but there were no injuries. Residents described fleeing through a rain of fire, as wind estimated at 60 mph or more drove flames and embers into their neighborhood of $300,000-plus homes on the edge of the San Fernando Valley suburbs. Investigators trying to determine the cause of the fire sought two men seen in a park near the point of origin before dawn Friday, Millan said. The men were being sought as witnesses not suspects, Millan said. The Santa Ana winds, as they are known here, pick up speed as they funnel through canyons in the mountains around Southern California, heat by compression, dry the brush further and can spread the smallest fire into an inferno. The winds, which sweep Southern California sporadically every fall and winter, were blamed for the disastrous spread of two other Los Angeles area fires last week. A total of 22 homes in La Verne, and Baldwin Park, both to the east of downtown, were destroyed Thursday. In La Verne, a brush fire spread into a bedroom community; in Baldwin Park, a blaze at a paper recycling plant raged through a neighborhood of modest houses.
