The wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles earlier this year — burning entire neighborhoods to the ground, straining firefighting resources and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes — may have led to hundreds more deaths than were recorded,

Wildfires that devastated parts of the Los Angeles area in January indirectly led to hundreds of deaths in the ensuing weeks, far exceeding the official toll of 31 fatalities, according to a study released on Wednesday.

Wildfires that tore through Los Angeles early this year may have caused hundreds more deaths than official reports show, new research suggests. While the fires were said to have taken 31 lives, a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that about 440 more deaths may be linked to the disaster.