Readers are not specifically told what has happened to any of the homes in the neighborhood. We are told that the house in the story "stood alone." The rest of the city is complete rubble, and only one house remains standing.
The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing.
Readers are given a hint that the area has been destroyed by some kind of nuclear disaster. We are told that the city gives off a "radioactive glow" that can be seen for miles at night. What we don't know is the cause of the hinted at nuclear disaster. It is likely one of two possibilities. First, it could have been a nuclear bomb similar to the bombs dropped on Japan to end World War II. Second, it could have been a nuclear reactor that melted down and exploded similar to...
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Chernobyl. While that particular disaster had terrible radioactive fallout, it didn't have the same kind of explosive destructive power as a bomb. With that said, this is a fictional story and writing about a nuclear power plant blowing up an entire city is not a unique idea.
Regardless of what caused the explosion, a nuclear explosion that incinerated everything within the blast radius is the likely reason that all of the city has been reduced to rubble. Why a single house was left standing is unknown, but it isn't completely fiction. Random buildings/houses were left in tact in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Additionally, Bradbury's information about the shadows left on the wall is based on historical evidence as well.
The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down.
References
The story "There Will Come Soft Rains" implies that all the other houses in the area have been destroyed in a nuclear blast. Only this house remains standing and functioning. We know that the people who lived in the house are dead. They were playing outside, and we are told that their images were burned into one wall of the house in one "titanic instant."
The nuclear attack seems to have caught the family, and probably everyone else, unaware. The father was mowing the lawn, the mother picking flowers. The young boy in the family was throwing a ball, and the young girl was raising her arms to catch it. It was just another ordinary day.
Although the family is dead and the neighborhood obliterated, the house continues to function as if the dead family is going about its normal business.
Bradbury's story is a cautionary tale about technology going out of control.
The story "There Will Come Soft Rains" is set in the wake of a nuclear explosion, which has flattened the city of Allendale, California. Among the ruins of the city stands a solitary home, and the main action of the story takes place inside the home. The inhabitants of the home have died in the atomic blast, and their white silhouettes on the side of the house are all that remains of them. Outside of the home, the rest of the neighborhood and the surrounding landscape is rubble, which gives off a radioactive glow at night.
Even though there are no humans alive in the city of Allendale, the mechanical home carries out its daily tasks without missing a beat. The house seems indifferent to the fact that no humans are alive as it cooks, cleans, entertains, and issues reminders about appointments. The house even casually discards the dog's corpse once it succumbs to radiation poisoning.
The home symbolically represents technology, which was invented by humans to support and aid mankind. However, technology becomes useless without the presence of human beings, and the house no longer serves its original purpose. Towards the end of the story, a tree crashes into the kitchen and sparks a serious house fire that cannot be contained. The house eventually collapses into the basement, and only one wall remains upright among the city of rubble and ashes.