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- Estimated death toll from LA wildfires skyrockets in new report</p>
<p>Christopher Cann, USA TODAY August 8, 2025 at 1:31 AM</p>
<p>The death toll from the two wildfires that destroyed vast swaths of Los Angeles County in early 2025 is much higher than previously reported, a new study says.</p>
<p>Researchers say the Eaton and Palisades wildfires led to some 440 wildfire-related deaths between Jan. 5 and Feb. 1, the causes of which range from exposure to poor air quality to health care delays, according to the study published Aug. 6 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.</p>
<p>Officially, the blazes have been tied to 31 deaths – a figure that researchers say does not come close to capturing the true toll of the fires.</p>
<p>See more: An aerial view of the LA fires. Neighborhoods torched, communities look like war zones</p>
<p>"The official estimates are barely scraping the surface," Andrew Stokes, one of the authors of the study and an associate professor at Boston University, told SFGate. "I think there's likely to be a massive undercount when it comes to wildfire deaths, both in Los Angeles County, but also in other areas where wildfires have occurred, including in Northern California and Hawaii."</p>
<p>To calculate the higher death toll, the paper's three researchers compared the number of deaths in Los Angeles County in January and February to previous years, allowing them to determine how many deaths the area saw on average in years when there were no devastating wildfires.</p>
<p>With those figures, researchers were able to calculate the number of excess deaths likely tied to the blazes. They found that between January and February, 6,371 people died in Los Angeles County, about 7% higher than the expected death toll of 5,931, according to the paper.</p>
<p>The study says the deaths range from direct contact with the fires to lung or heart conditions that were worsened by the smoke and stress of the explosive blazes.</p>
<p>"The findings from this study underscore the need to complement direct fatalities estimates with alternative methods to quantify the additional mortality burden of wildfires and of climate-related emergencies more broadly," the study's authors wrote. "They also highlight the need for improved mortality surveillance during and after wildfire emergencies."</p>
<p>The Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted on Jan. 7 and were spread by record winds that carried the flames to working class neighborhoods and luxury, cliffside mansions. The blazes torched nearly 60 square miles of land, an area about the size of Miami, and recovery efforts are still underway throughout the region.</p>
<p>A report released in late July says the wildfires are among the costliest in U.S. history, racking up a combined $65 billion in losses.</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How many people died in LA wildfires? Death toll skyrockets in report.</p>
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