Upvote:8
A purely stone structure indeed cannot be consumed by fire (except by a nuclear explosion or a volcano). However, there are precious few purely stone structures, especially ancient ones.
An arch is a relatively complex design (and it exerts outward forces requiring buttresses), thus very often wood beams were used as structural elements to supplement (or avoid) them (especially for roofs - a critical structural element). When the beams are destroyed by fire, the building often collapses, thus earning a description of a "stone building destroyed by fire".
Most buildings are not empty - they contain combustible materials (wooden furniture, cloth tapestries, firewood, grain, oil &c) that burn well. Uneven heating may make stones and mortar crumble, resulting in a building collapse (this is why one uses a clay-based mortar instead of the usual concrete-based one for building brick stoves).
See also
PS. Consider the 9/11 attacks: a steel beam structure collapsed when the fireproofing was blown off by the initial impact of the planes and then jet fuel fire weakened the steel. One can reasonably describe the event as "steel building destroyed by fire" - even though steel does not burn or melt under the conditions created by the event.