A rush to grab pets and wallets

For more than an hour, Michael Widman watched the flames licking through Griffith Park as helicopters darted through banks of smoke and flames that moved ever closer to his home.

For a time, the flames appeared far enough away to make panic unnecessary. Then they roared through the trees and vegetation of the park and moved quickly toward the Los Feliz neighborhood.

Finally, the flames whipped into a frenzy in front of him and Widman made the decision to evacuate his home on Commonwealth Avenue, a street that dead-ends at the park.

Widman, who is originally from New York and moved into the neighborhood five years ago, said he had been watching the fire and thought it was under control when it flared up again.

“I’m done with L.A.,” he said.

As the hours ticked by Tuesday, the quiet, pricey neighborhood south of Griffith Park turned into a place where residents grew anxious.

About 9 p.m., police and firefighters knocked on doors along Dundee Drive, looking for stragglers hesitant to leave their homes.

By late Tuesday more than 300 people had been evacuated from the neighborhood.

Jonathan Johnson, a real estate agent who lives in a $3-million-plus home on nearby Cromwell Avenue and who has sold property in the area for 25 years, said that when authorities called the evacuation, “All I could do was grab my dog, my passport and wallet, and cellphone with the extra charger. What am I going to do about my koi fish?

“You see it happen all over,” he said, referring to the fire emergencies that routinely afflict the city. “You never think it’s going to happen in your backyard.”

Jon Marc Edwards, an artist 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 -- including pets -- had left, and he was planning to flee as well.

Some residents were torn about the order to leave. Kim Rhodes, a television actress who lives on Observatory Avenue, said she packed her car and was getting ready to go, but “half of me doesn’t want to evacuate. The other half of me is saying, ‘What am I going to do if I don’t evacuate? Sleep tonight?’ ”

Among the homeowners unwilling to leave immediately was Adam Aivazian, who has lived on Commonwealth above Los Feliz for 15 years.

“I don’t dare leave because my wife, my children and two grandchildren live with me and they’re not here now; they’re on their way home, and they don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

Nearby John Marshall High School was set up as an evacuation center, but by 9 p.m. only about 20 people had shown up.

“I could feel the heat,” said Mark Wynn, who fled his home of six years on Dundee Drive after police came through the neighborhood with bullhorns ordering evacuations.

“I was almost choking to death on the smoke,” he said.

Wynn tossed some personal effects in his car and drove into a massive traffic jam on Los Feliz Boulevard, where he could see other cars stuffed with belongings.

He made his way to the high school, where the Red Cross and police scrambled to set up shelter for as many as 200 people.

James Mahler, a retired film technician, also was evacuated from his Dundee Drive home, where he has lived for five years. The police escorted him and his caretaker, Darcela Hugal, from the house so quickly that Mahler said he was able to scoop up only his cat, named Dundee after the street.

He sat on a folding chair by the entrance of the Marshall High gym Tuesday night as volunteers and Red Cross officials kept walking past.

“I just took the wallet and the kitty cat,” Mahler said.

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paul.pringle@latimes.com

ted.rohrlich@latimes.com

Times staff writer J. Michael Kennedy contributed to this report.