Evacuations Riverside County

A propane tank car started leaking after a Santa Fe Railway freight train derailed Thursday night forcing the evacuation of nearly 200 people from a large area of downtown Riverside but there were no injuries or explosions, authorities said. The car was one of nine tank cars on the train and was said to be empty but it was feared that it contained enough residual gas to set off an explosion with enough force to cause damage up to 2,000 feet away, fire officials said.

A tenacious wildfire prompted the evacuation of the San Jacinto Mountain communities of Idyllwild and neighboring Pine Cove on Monday afternoon, with thousands of residents urged to take flight, and some, who refused to abandon their homes, watching nervously as smoke obliterated the afternoon sun. The blaze, which started Saturday, frustrated 1,000 firefighters as it slowly crept up steep, inaccessible canyons filled with heavy brush that had not burned for 40 years.

A tenacious wildfire prompted the evacuation of the San Jacinto Mountain communities of Idyllwild and neighboring Pine Cove on Monday afternoon, with thousands of residents urged to take flight, and some, who refused to abandon their homes, watching nervously as smoke obliterated the afternoon sun. The blaze, which started Saturday, frustrated 1,000 firefighters as it slowly crept up steep, inaccessible canyons filled with heavy brush that had not burned for 40 years.

A propane tank car started leaking after a Santa Fe Railway freight train derailed Thursday night forcing the evacuation of nearly 200 people from a large area of downtown Riverside but there were no injuries or explosions, authorities said. The car was one of nine tank cars on the train and was said to be empty but it was feared that it contained enough residual gas to set off an explosion with enough force to cause damage up to 2,000 feet away, fire officials said.

Fire officials said they suspect that arson caused a 4,300-acre wildfire that began near an American Indian reservation and spread into the San Bernardino National Forest, destroying an abandoned home and forcing evacuations. A Riverside County fire captain said all possible natural and accidental causes had been eliminated. The blaze started Friday afternoon near Soboba Road and Juaro Canyon in brush behind a ranch near the Soboba Reservation, said Capt. David Petrinovich.