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,

A new study has tied 440 deaths to the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles County, a total that's more than 14 times a previous count.

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.