>>17914669
>Retreating German forces utilized scorched earth tactics, and though initially German General Lothar Rendulic ordered only the public buildings in Rovaniemi to be destroyed, on 13 October 1944 the German army received orders **to destroy all the buildings in Rovaniemi, **only excluding hospitals and houses where inhabitants were present.
From the exact same page you quoted.
And it wasn't just Rovaniemi they burned cinders, but every town they were came accross.