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

He points to the exact spot where a thunderbolt ignited a few days prior, triggering a inferno with catastrophic consequences.

"The past month has been a nightmare for me individually, but also for nearby producers and the whole community here," he states. "At 47 years old and I've never seen a fire that intense."

The blaze burning in excess of 20,000 hectares of land and forcing numerous of people to be evacuated from communities in this farming-heavy corner of Spain's northwest.

Yet it constituted just a single example of extensive fires which have heavily impacted Spain this summer, destroying 0.8% of the country's territory.

The severely impacted regions were here in the north-west, including the provinces of a northern region and Galicia, along with the western region of a pastoral territory.

Consequences for Honey Production

Apiculture, which is an important industry in rural the northwestern territories, was one of the main victims of the summer.

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

"I project that this year I'm going to miss out on 50% of my honey yield, at the very least, because of the fires, and the next year the same, or even more damaging," Mr Bruña says.

The absence of physical damage to his hives means he does not qualify for insurance.

He is evaluating moving many of them elsewhere, in the expectation of bettering the bees' odds of survival and minimizing his future losses.

Animal Herders Likewise Harmed

Numerous livestock farmers have also been forced to move their animals in the last month, both to evade fires and to guarantee they can access undamaged pasture.

"The situation was dire for farmers [this summer], it was an endless cycle of infernos," says a rancher from Castromil.

His losses include around 30 animals this summer, most recently having to euthanize 11 animals which had suffered severe burns.

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

Even though farmers expect to receive insurance compensation, he believes there will be a knock-on cost.

"They may pay us, but next year, in place of costing us, for example, €5,000, insurance rates will cost €10,000 or €15,000," he says. "Because insurance companies don't want to lose money."

Economic Impact and Travel Industry Declines

The COAG national farmers' association assessed in August that the industry had experienced damages worth at least €600m.

The biggest costs have been burned fields and properties and fatalities of animals.

The other main economic casualty of this summer's fires has been tourism, which accounts for 13% of Spanish GDP.

Although most of the coastal areas that are tourism escaped fires this summer, the southern province of a tourist hotspot was an exception.

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

A major natural attraction, the biggest glacial body of water in the the peninsula, is a major local draw.

But the advance of the fire that began in the locality in the middle of August caused it to be shut down.

"In August, this area was at maximum occupancy in terms of tourism," says a local official. "Subsequently, on 18 August, it dropped down to 10% of capacity."

For tourists this was problematic. But for many residents it equated to financial ruin.

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

Wider Social Impact

The past few months has highlighted the well-known gap between city and countryside Spain.

Decades of relocation from rural areas to urban hubs means that 90% of the Spanish population now resides in just 30% of its territory.

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

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

"It's hard enough as it is to survive because of the cost of animal feed and fuel – every day it's more difficult for farmers to make ends meet," he says. "Furthermore, this occurs."