Satellite images show the scale of the destruction from LA's wildfires

These two blazes spread for days with firefighters unable to stop their growth.

As of Friday at noon Pacific Time, the Palisades fire had consumed more than 20,400 acres and was 8% contained, and the Eaton Fire had burned more than 13,600 acres with 3% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Together, they've destroyed about 10,000 structures, the agency estimates.

Charred, leveled communities like this are emerging in the paths of both fires.

Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood on the west side of Los Angeles County, was the first to be devastated. The fire there broke out on Tuesday morning.

The blaze spread so far, so quickly in part because of a windstorm that the National Weather Service called "life-threatening and destructive."

Gusts up to 100 mph carried burning embers far into residential areas, igniting spot fires that grew into an urban conflagration.

In the above image, you can see where some of those spot fires began far from the initial brush fire.

The Palisades Fire alone has become the most destructive fire ever to hit Los Angeles County, CNN reported Wednesday, citing Cal Fire data. Fire experts suspect it could be the costliest in California history, maybe even in US history.

These satellite images show houses burned down in the Altadena neighborhood, one of the areas most affected by the Eaton Fire.

Houses and buildings on East Altadena Drive are glowing orange with flame and shrouded in smoke in this image from Wednesday.

Flying over the area after the flames subsided, the ABC7 helicopter pilot Scott Reiff said, "it looks basically like it was carpet-bombed."

When houses are built this close together, one burning building can easily ignite its neighbors. A house fire burns much hotter than a forest fire because of the materials that are burning, according to Louis Gritzo, the chief science officer at the commercial property insurance company FM.

Many homes didn't stand a chance. They were under siege from "the high heat release from one burning structure combined with a continual ember attack," Gritzo said.

The Pacific Coast Highway and Tuna Canyon Road, which connects Malibu and Topanga, were covered in smoke Wednesday as fires burned through.

Many of the homes along the PCH have been incinerated.

The true scale of devastation and loss of life may not become clear for many days.

A red flag warning for critical fire weather is set to continue in Los Angeles and Ventura counties through 6 p.m. Friday.

The National Weather Service expects about 18 hours of reprieve before another round of "gusty" winds late Saturday into Sunday, with a stronger wind event possible Monday night through Wednesday.

"We're not out of the woods yet," said Courtney Carpenter, a warning-coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

Correction: January 9, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of a warning-coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service. She's Courtney Carpenter, not Courtney Carpen.