bugs have a way of finding stressed plants .... and a tree that caught fire is probably stressed .... 3 years isnt much time in tree time.. which is counted in decades ... probably one of the wooly aphid type creatures .. but i cant tell from the pix ... but it looks awful close to the house... it might be worth your while to have a certified arborist give you an onsite inspection of the trees overall health ... add your big city name to the link below ken https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=isa+certified+arborist&ia=web

I'll try to take better pictures tomorrow. I'm in zone 8b Southeast Coastal Georgia. We have had lots of rain recently. I thought it might be some kind of fruit because it was growing in the area that the previous owners had made into a garden. We also have a red olive tree and a fig bush in that same area. I'll take some more pictures with close-up of the leaves.

Cunninghamia lanceolata would be my suggestion, too, based on proclivity to resprout from the base when winter dieback occurs around here. In northwest SC, I doubt winter kill is the cause, but rather the owners might have cut these back on purpose to create this effect.

just fyi.. there is a NAME THAT PLANT FORUM... the variegated version of this tree is stunning... and crushed leaves smell like turpentine... ken