New interactive maps showed the carnage left in the wake of the Los Angeles fires - giving displaced locals still forbidden from returning a crucial glimpse into what is left of their homes.

As the official death toll climbs to 24, anxious residents are preparing for another 72 hours of hellish weather conditions expected to propel the fires in new directions.

The fires have destroyed 40,000 acres across the most affluent neighborhoods in LA, with A-list celebrity homes and restaurant hotspots among the 12,300 structures wiped out. 

Local fire departments have warned that harsher winds and more fire would prevent those under mandatory evacuation orders from returning home to assess the damage.  

'Life-threatening winds and dangerously low humidity are forecast for much of Southern California creating a significant risk of rapid fire spread,' the California fire service (calFire) said in a statement. 'The winds will cause increased fire activity.' 

Helpless locals are now turning to the maps to assess the damage remotely, learning through thousands of pictures which homes have been razed, and those which were miraculously spared.

The Eaton fire map shows 3,800 inspected structures, including Mandy Moore's family home, in the mountainous area north of LA - about 24 per cent of the evacuation zone which was decimated by fire.

California fire commander Kevin Bohall said 1,422 of the structures they've reached so far were entirely destroyed. A further 212 sustained some level of damage.

Among the carnage and devastation, the map shows four houses in a row that somehow still stand seemingly untouched - while surrounded by ash and rubble.