FACES OF THE FIRE : Real-Life Nightmare Jars Actor : Celebrities: ‘Elm Street’ star and other show business residents of Laguna tell of watching flames threaten their beach town.

Robert Englund has frightened a generation of moviegoers as the evil Freddy Krueger, the murderous high school custodian whose reign of terror in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies began after he was burned to death in his boiler room.

But Wednesday as fire roared in the hills around Laguna Beach, Englund and his wife had their own real-life fright night.

Instead of evacuating their ‘20s vintage three-bedroom bungalow at the bottom of Bluebird Canyon, Englund and his wife, set decorator Nancy Booth, spent from late afternoon until 3 in the morning on their roof keeping an eye on the fire.

“It was the duration that really wore me down,” Englund said Thursday. “It’s not fear so much except that for hours you contemplate losing everything--with a knot in your stomach. It makes you realize what’s important.”

Members of Laguna’s celebrity contingent who were contacted Thursday recalled the trauma of watching flames threaten the beach town. Others--such as Bette Midler, Mickey Rooney and Tab Hunter--who own homes in Laguna or have been frequent visitors, could not be reached for comment.

Actor Kent McCord, the star of TV’s old “Adam 12” series who has had a home in the beachfront Lagunita community for 20 years, said he saw the fire on the TV news at his home in Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon.

When it became apparent the fire was racing toward Laguna, he worried about the safety of his 18-year-old son Michael, who lives in their beach house full time and attends Saddleback College.

“I knew the fire was well north of us, but I’d never seen anything like the pictures I saw on television,” he said.

Alarmed by the fire’s rapid progress, McCord tried calling his son at his football practice. When he was unable to reach him, he drove down.

It took him three hours.

By the time McCord reached the college, his son had called him on his car phone to say he was already home.

Englund, meanwhile, remained concerned about a flare-up over Bluebird Canyon.

“There are so many trees there, it would have just been a fire funnel all the way to the coast,” he said.

Throughout the evening the Englunds continued to hose down the huge pine tree next to their house. “That would be like a Roman candle if anything got to it,” he said.

Their most harrowing moment came just before sunset.

The wind changed directions and a thick cloud of black smoke from the Temple Hills area two canyons away engulfed their neighborhood.

They had their two dogs standing by in the car and Englund stayed on the roof as his wife packed their valuables, though she wasn’t sure what exactly to pack.

“I finally just said, ‘Hey, whatever you can throw in the cars,’ ” he said with a laugh. “It was sort of a strange combination of memorabilia and dog food.”

Then the wind shifted again. “That was a good sign,” he said.