Once a lush coastal village Brancaster Staithe now lies a blackened shell of its former self, littered with burnt out sheds and vehicles.
Roofless homes just along the skyline, with work beginning to rip the buildings down.
It came after a field fire broke out during Tuesday's heatwave, spreading to homes and gardens along the main A149 coast road.
More than 80 firefighters from across Norfolk and further afield were called in to battle the blaze.
Maggie Edridge was walking through the village past the rubble of her former home.
The 83-year-old widow first heard the flames as they roared through the pines in her neighbour's garden.
Mrs Edridge, who had lived in the property for more than 40 years, said: "It was everywhere and there was nothing they could do."
Mrs Edridge was evacuated by her neighbours before the flames reached her home.
However she lost everything as fire gutted the four-bedroom property.
"There were so many thing my husband and I had shared together in that house, we had a wonderful library," she said. "But they're just things."
Mrs Edridge is staying with neighbours.
Her two sons, both in their 60s, are flying home from Malta and South Africa respectively to help their mother pick up the pieces.
Down the road a burned out van sits in the street, with the charred remains of a tractor, boats, shepherd's huts, outbuildings and garden furniture scattered through neighbouring gardens.
The fire spread down the back of these gardens and engulfed four former council houses which were standing empty pending demolition.
Ten new properties for affordable rent are set to be built on the site by social landlord Freebridge Community Housing.
Embers then blew across the road, setting light to back gardens, fences and undergrowth on the other side.
"It was a rough night," said Brancaster Parish Council chairman, Tom De Winton. "It was a very rough night.
Some 22 people were evacuated from their homes.
Villagers set up an evacuation station in the 71 Club and set about sourcing food supplies, while others closed the main road off.
As a steady stream of appliances arrived on the scene, firefighters began to run out of water to fight the spreading flames.
Meanwhile a neighbour scoured a firebreak using a mechanical digger to try to stop the fire spreading to homes.
Flames tore through a row of trees and destroyed sheds, with firefighters managing to save the properties.
"When I got back there were about five firefighters in the garden and all this around it had gone up," said Mr Cushing.
"One of them said: 'Norfolk's on fire.
"One of them had come from two hours away, from Mundesley."
Unsung heroes of the night have emerged as workers from UK Power Networks, who isolated the network around the worst-affected area, allowing supplies to be restored to the remainder of the village.
Elsewhere in Norfolk, a dozen homes were lost in a blaze at Ashill, near Watton, while 60 acres of wildlife habitat was destroyed by a fire at Wild Ken Hill, at Snettisham.
Mr De Winton said had the wind not dropped at the height of the fire, the outcome could have been very different for Dale End
"If the wind had been going the other way that entire estate would have been wiped out - 60 houses," he said.
"The whole village pulled together. The people of the village have shown great unity, great strength and great compassion. People want to help, people want to contribute.
"The village is still in shock. The parish council has been sending listeners to talk to people, to allow people to vent their shock and get it off their chests."
"You watch the news and stiff like this happens to other people. But this has happened to us."
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