Wildfires Devastate Spain's Rural Communities: A Summer of Loss

Thu Sep 18 2025 11:38:36 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

This summer has seen widespread devastation in rural Spain due to catastrophic wildfires, profoundly affecting agricultural production and local economies.

With over 20,000 hectares burned and communities evacuated, Spain's summer wildfires have highlighted the severe impact on agriculture, tourism, and rural livelihoods. Farmers report significant losses and concerns over future production, while local businesses face financial ruin following mandatory evacuations.

José Antonio Bruña, a honey producer, is standing on a hillside where he keeps his beehives near the small Spanish village of Porto de Sanabria.

He points to the exact spot, a few hundred metres away on the mountain opposite, where lightning struck a few weeks earlier, igniting a wildfire that had disastrous consequences.

This August has been a nightmare for me personally, but also for the local farmers and everyone here in the village, he says. I'm 47 and I've never seen a fire that fierce.

It ended up burning more than 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of land and causing thousands of people to be evacuated from villages in this farming-heavy corner of north-western Spain, near the Portuguese border.

But it was just one of several vast blazes which have devastated Spain this summer, burning 0.8% of the country's surface area.

The most heavily affected zones were here in the north-west, including the regions of Castilla y León and Galicia, plus the western region of Extremadura.

Honey production, an important industry in rural north-west Spain, was one of the main casualties of the summer. Mr Bruña knows people who have lost up to 400 beehives in the fires.

Fortunately, his own 1,500 hives are intact, as the fire stopped just metres away from the fields where he keeps them. But the damage caused to nearby flora will have serious repercussions for his business.

I calculate that this year I'm going to lose 50% of my honey production, at the very least, because of the fires, and the following year the same, or even worse, Mr Bruña says.

Millions of livestock farmers have also been forced to move their animals to avoid fires and ensure access to unburned pasture, with many losing livestock. Fernando García, a cow farmer from Castromil, reports that he has lost around 30 cattle, including 11 animals that suffered severe burns.

The COAG national farmers' association estimated damages worth at least €600m, primarily due to burned fields, properties and livestock losses. Tourism, a key driver of Spanish GDP, was also heavily affected, particularly in areas like Cádiz where hotels and homes were evacuated.

This summer's disasters have underscored the gap between urban and rural Spain, raising concerns about infrastructure, support, and the future of agriculture in these regions.