"It looked like a war zone."

No, it didn't.

First of all, there is no such thing as a war zone. There is war, of course, and it is nasty, ugly, violent, foul, and loud.

The only thing that looks like war is war.

And there is no such thing as a war zone, as if some committee were putting up signs restricting the colors of tanks or guns or something.

To compare a burning building or a car wreck, no matter how bad these things are, with war is the worst sort of hyperbole.