Scene on Cromwell Avenue

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Jonathan Johnson, a realtor who lives in a $3-million-plus home on Cromwell Avenue and who has sold property in the area for 25 years, said after authorities called the evacuation in his neighborhood, ‘All I could do was grab my dog, my passport and wallet and cell phone with the extra charger. What am I going to do about my koi fish?’ ...

‘You see it happen all over the city,’ he said, referring to the fire emergency. ‘ You never think it’s going to happen in your backyard.’

Jon Marc Edwards, a fine artist painter who lives on Cromwell Avenue, said: ‘Your natural instinct is to stay by your house and protect it.’ Still, by 9:15 p.m., his family already left, his pets were evacuated, and he was planning to flee as well.

-Ted Rohrlich