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. Now firefighters like Larrañaga across Spain are preparing for a potential scorcher of a summer. And with Spain sweltering under a record-hot spring, it is again leading the continent in 2023 with 66,000 hectares turned to ashes. Four people, including one firefighter, died in blazes that consumed 306,000 hectares. Spain suffered the biggest losses from wildfires of any European Union country last year amid a record-hot 2022. 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,” Larrañaga told The Associated Press in the rural town of Solsona, some two hours north of Barcelona. “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. 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 historic trend of being the hottest and driest months of the year. Larrañaga is one of the top fire analysts for the firefighters of Catalonia charged with safeguarding the region’s homes and landscapes. This part of northeast Spain is, like large swaths of the Mediterranean country, braced for wildfires due to the lethal combination of a prolonged drought, record-high temperatures and increasingly dense woods unable to adapt to a fast-changing climate. SOLSONA, Spain (AP) - Surveying the hills covered with near bone-dry pines stretching to the Pyrenees in the distance, Asier Larrañaga has reason to be on guard.
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