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A local honey producer stands on a hillside near the remote village of a rural settlement.

He references the very spot where lightning hit a few weeks before, sparking a wildfire with catastrophic effects.

"This season has been a calamity for me on a personal level, but also for local farmers and the whole community here," he says. "Having lived 47 years and I've never seen a fire that intense."

The blaze consuming more than 20,000 hectares of land and causing numerous of people to be removed from communities in this rural corner of Spain's northwest.

However, it represented just one among many extensive blazes which have devastated Spain this summer, burning 0.8% of the country's landmass.

The worst-hit regions were situated in the north-west, including the provinces of a autonomous community and another community, as well as the western region of Extremadura.

Impact on Honey Production

Beekeeping, which is an significant industry in non-urban this part of the nation, was one of the key victims of the summer.

Fortunately, his personal hives are unharmed, because the fire halted just a short distance away from the plots where he maintains them.

"I calculate that this year I'm going to miss out on 50% of my honey production, as a minimum, because of the fires, and the next year the same, or even more damaging," the apiarist says.

The lack of physical damage to his hives means he is ineligible for insurance.

He is considering moving many of them elsewhere, in the expectation of enhancing the bees' prospects of survival and minimizing his future losses.

Cattle Ranchers Also Affected

Numerous livestock farmers have also been obliged to move their animals in the last month, both to avoid fires and to make certain they can access untouched pasture.

"Conditions were disastrous for farmers [this summer], it was an endless cycle of infernos," says a rancher from a small community.

He suffered the death of around 30 livestock this summer, most recently having to sacrifice 11 animals which had endured severe burns.

"All of this has had a big monetary impact, but the biggest impact of all is that we lie awake at night," he comments. "It is a constant tension."

Even though farmers look forward to receive insurance payouts, he suspects there will be a ripple cost.

"Compensation might arrive, but next year, in place of costing us, for example, €5,000, insurance premiums will amount to €10,000 or €15,000," he predicts. "As insurance companies seek to avoid to lose money."

Monetary Impact and Travel Industry Setbacks

An agricultural representative body estimated in August that the industry had experienced damages worth at least €600m.

The largest costs have been destroyed fields and properties and deaths of animals.

A further main economic sufferer of this summer's fires has been tourism, which represents 13% of Spanish GDP.

While most of the coastal areas associated with tourism avoided fires this summer, the southern province of a coastal zone was an anomaly.

Additionally this summer's main wildfire zones, in the west and north-west, have cultivated rural tourism in recent years.

A major natural attraction, the largest glacial lake in the Iberia, is a major local attraction.

Yet the advance of the fire that began in Porto de Sanabria in the middle of August caused it to be closed.

"At the height of summer, this area was at peak visitation in terms of tourism," says Miguel Ángel Martos. "And then, on 18 August, it plummeted to 10% of capacity."

For holidaymakers this was disruptive. But for many inhabitants it spelled financial disaster.

"The regional government has said it will pay me €5,500," he remarks, laughing bitterly. "It will be necessary to come up with some other kind of payment because I didn't want to close, they compelled me to."

Wider Societal Effects

The recent season has underlined the well-known gap between metropolitan and rural Spain.

A long time of relocation from rural areas to cities means that 90% of the Spanish population now resides in just 30% of its country.

The rest has become known as depopulated Spain, where a thin population has often voiced discontent about a shortage of infrastructure.

The wildfires, which have been particularly hard to control this year, only worsen that discontent.

"It is difficult as it is to survive because of the expense of animal feed and fuel – every day it's more difficult for farmers to get by," he explains. "And then on top that, this occurs."