Small area of land in flames, destroyed, with nothing retained (4,2,3)
I believe the answer is:
isle of man
'small area of land' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'in flames destroyed with nothing retained' is the wordplay.
'destroyed with' indicates anagramming the letters.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'retained' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are held or retained).
'flames' with its letters anagrammed with 'o' makes 'sleofma'.
'in' placed around 'sleofma' is 'ISLE OF MAN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for isle of man that I've seen before include "Island in 33 Across where cats have no tails" , "Here are Peel, Douglas" , "tax haven" , "Its capital is Douglas and its cats are tailless" , "'It's in the Irish Sea (4,2,3)'" .)