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A local honey producer can be found on a slope near the remote community of a northwestern Spanish locale.

He references the precise spot where an electrical storm ignited a few weeks before, triggering a blaze with severe effects.

"The past month has been a calamity for me individually, but also for local farmers and the whole community in this area," he says. "I'm 47 and I've never experienced a fire that intense."

Ultimately burning in excess of 20,000 hectares of land and causing a multitude of people to be removed from villages in this farming-heavy corner of Spain's northwest.

Yet it constituted just one of several large-scale conflagrations which have devastated Spain this period, burning 0.8% of the country's surface area.

The severely impacted areas were here in the north-west, including the territories of a autonomous community and Galicia, as well as the westerly region of a pastoral territory.

Consequences for Beekeeping

Honey production, which is an important industry in non-urban this part of the nation, was one of the primary sufferers of the summer.

Fortunately, the beekeeper's apiaries are intact, because the fire halted just metres away from the fields where he keeps them.

"I project that this year I'm going to lose 50% of my honey production, at the very least, because of the fires, and the next year the same, or even more severe," the apiarist says.

The absence of physical damage to his hives means he cannot claim insurance.

He is evaluating moving many of them to different areas, in the aim of improving the bees' prospects of survival and minimizing his future losses.

Animal Herders Also Affected

A great number of livestock farmers have also been obliged to move their animals in recent weeks, both to avoid fires and to make certain they can access untouched pasture.

"Conditions were disastrous for farmers [this summer], it was one fire after another," says a rancher from a border village.

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

"All of this has had a big financial impact, but the biggest impact of all is that we can't sleep at night," he notes. "It's a constant tension."

Even though farmers expect to receive insurance payouts, he fears 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 says. "As insurance companies don't want to lose money."

Economic Cost and Travel Industry Setbacks

A farming organization assessed in August that the industry had experienced damages worth at least €600m.

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

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

Even if most of the seaside regions which are tourism were spared fires this summer, the southmost province of a tourist hotspot was an anomaly.

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

A major natural attraction, the largest glacial reservoir in the the peninsula, is a major local draw.

However the advance of the fire that began in the locality in the middle of August caused it to be closed.

"During the peak season, this area was at peak visitation in terms of tourism," says the mayor. "Subsequently, on 18 August, it plummeted to 10% of capacity."

Among visitors this was inconvenient. But for many inhabitants it meant financial catastrophe.

"The regional government has said it will pay me €5,500," he says, with irony. "They are going to have to come up with some other kind of compensation because I was not willing to close, they forced me to."

Wider Community Repercussions

This summer has highlighted the now-infamous gap between city and countryside Spain.

A long time of relocation from rural areas to urban hubs means that 90% of the Spanish population now inhabits just 30% of its country.

The other part has become known as depopulated Spain, where a sparse population has often complained about a shortage of infrastructure.

These blazes, which have been particularly uncontainable this year, only worsen that dissatisfaction.

"It is difficult as it is to survive because of the price of animal feed and fuel – every day it's more challenging for farmers to survive," he comments. "And then on top that, this takes place."