LOS ANGELES - Survivors of the wildfires that have been sweeping parts of Los Angeles have started to trickle back to their evacuated homes in recent days, hoping against the odds that they were spared the worst of the devastation.

Many instead found little more than concrete foundations, ashen rubble and memories.

The wildfires, among the worst natural disasters ever to hit California, had killed at least 10 people as of the morning of Jan 10 and destroyed or badly damaged more than 10,000 structures, authorities said.

Aerial images of some scorched neighbourhoods - including parts of Pacific Palisades, a mostly affluent enclave west of downtown, and Altadena, a diverse neighbourhood on LA’s eastern edge - show block after block of homes burned to the ground, as if in a war zone.

Those who survived say they feel fortunate to have escaped with their lives. But many shed tears over family homes lost and fears about futures filled with uncertainty.

In a neighbourhood of 60 homes ravaged by the Palisades Fire, the only thing left standing at Mr Rick McGeagh’s ranch house near the Will Rogers State Park is a statue of the Virgin Mary he installed when they moved there in 1998. It had belonged to his grandmother who had died a year earlier.

He called the statue’s survival an “amazing blessing” in a terrible time. “I think it’s miraculous.”

Mr McGeagh, 61, a commercial real estate broker who along with his wife raised three children at their home, said only six homes in his neighbourhood remained standing.

“Everything else is ash and rubble,” he told Reuters on Jan 10.

He first noticed the fire on Jan 8, when he was out walking his dog near the park and saw odd looking white clouds that turned out to be smoke. He rushed home, packed everything that he could grab in his car and fled with his wife.

Later they watched the progression of the fire that day on their home security camera. “At five, we saw the neighbour’s house across the street go. Then our camera went out.”

“We’re obviously devastated, but grateful to have each other,” Mr McGeagh said.