Exactly! I can't help thinking that "razed to the ground" had "to the ground" added by the newsreader to "help" the audience to understand what she was on about. Had she said that the houses were razed, maybe she'd thought that half the people listening would start searching in the sky for for flying houses. It would have been far more "helpful" just to say "burned down!" "Razed" is one of those words that works better written down.