Crossword Genius

City gutted after forest fire (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ardency

'fire' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'city gutted after forest' is the wordplay.
'gutted' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (to gut something is to remove its insides).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'forest' becomes 'arden' (forest in Shakespeare's As You Like It).
'city' with its centre removed is 'cy'.
'cy' put after 'arden' is 'ARDENCY'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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