Hills in Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain, face perfect wildfire conditions due to the lethal combination of a prolonged drought, record-high temperatures and increasingly dense woods unable to adapt to a fast-changing climate.

Fifty-two-year-old Asier Larranaga is one of the top fire analysts for the firefighters of Catalonia charged with safeguarding the region's homes and landscapes. While grateful that some desperately needed rain has finally fallen in recent weeks, he is ready for the worst – unless July and August buck Spain's historical trend of being the hottest and driest months of the year.

"If we have a normal summer … and conditions of low humidity combined with high temperatures, then we will see fires that quickly expand beyond our extinction capacity. And for areas where it has not rained in May and this month, we could see these types of fires as early as next week," Larranaga told The Associated Press in the rural town of Solsona, some two hours north of Barcelona.

Larranaga was in Solsona to oversee a training session by the local fire brigade. Practice included simulating a last-resort protection maneuver used in cases when firefighters are trapped by flames. They clear an area of vegetation and take refuge in their truck, which is equipped with sprinklers. The firefighters said that they hope it is a maneuver they will never have to use.

Spain suffered the biggest losses from wildfires of any European Union country last year amid a record-hot 2022. Four people, including one firefighter, died in blazes that consumed 306,000 hectares. And with Spain sweltering under a record-hot spring, it is again leading the continent in 2023, with 66,000 hectares turned to ashes. Now firefighters like Larranaga across Spain are preparing for a potential scorcher of a summer.

The fires coincide with Catalonia and a large part of Spain's south bearing the brunt of a drought that started last year and has only recently been somewhat alleviated by rain. The central reservoirs for Catalonia, which provide water for some six million people, including Barcelona, are still only at 29 percent of capacity and water restrictions remain in place.

Climate change is playing a direct role in propagating these fires, experts agree. The increasing temperatures have made the plants that are used to more mild weather vulnerable to both plagues and fire. Spain, like the rest of the Mediterranean, is forecast to heat up faster than the global average. Spain saw fires that showed the virulence of a summer outbreak break out as early as March. Northern Europe is also battling blazes spurred by drought.

For more

Once a haven of flamingos, now a salt desert due to drought

Soaring temperatures, low rainfall in Spain raise serious concerns of prolonged drought

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