As crews continue to battle the deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles County, the scope of its destruction is coming into focus two days after the massive blaze first ignited.
Drone video shows a neighborhood turned to rubble, with street after street of homes and buildings reduced to ash.
Smoke hangs above the area, once lined with mansions and home to some of the country’s most elite.
While drones have provided a good aerial view of what is going on in California, they have also posed dangers for firefighting aircraft trying to battle the fires, the head of the U.S. Forest Service said.
“You also unfortunately have drones in the air, which is a concern to our pilots and to the safety of the aircraft, so we have to be mindful of that,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said.
Drone video shows a portion of a Pacific Palisades neighborhood almost completely burned down Thursday in Los Angeles.
The Palisades Fire erupted Tuesday morning in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood east of Malibu, as a brush fire. By Thursday, it had grown to more than 17,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.
It’s one of the most destructive fires in Los Angeles history, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said.
At least one person has died in the blaze. Officials told NBC News a body was discovered in a residential building off Pacific Coast Highway in connection with the fire, one of many burning in Southern California.
Officials said they are just starting to fully access the area for welfare checks and missing persons reports and warned that the death toll could grow.
Miles away, just north of downtown Los Angeles, the Eaton Fire has killed four people. It began Tuesday night near a canyon in the national forest lands in the area.
It had exploded to more than 13,000 acres by Thursday, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said at a news conference about the fire.
Both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire remain at 0% containment, according to Cal Fire.
Firefighters appeared to get some reprieve Thursday as winds slowed, allowing them to make progress on some blazes and contain a number of smaller fires that had been contributing to the disaster in Southern California, but winds are expected to pick up again Thursday night and into the weekend.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com