Complex sentence: The community fled to water to escape the suffocating air around them, returning after everything was over to the sight of "blackened homesteads" and the charred bodies of animals that could not escape.
Split into simpler sentences: The community fled to water to escape the suffocating air around them. After everything was over, the community returned to the sight of "blackened homesteads" and the charred bodies of animals that could not escape.