A mandatory evacuation order remained in place overnight Tuesday in Lincoln after propane coming from a rail tank car caught fire around noon and continued to burn at the Northern Energy tank farm.

Highway 65 in Lincoln was closed to traffic beginning Tuesday afternoon, and a mandatory evacuation was put in effect for homes and businesses within a 1-mile radius of the burning, 29,000-gallon rail car.

The possibility of an explosion prompted the evacuation of about 4,800 homes by Placer County and Lincoln law enforcement, said Daniel Berlant, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman, in a news release. Cal Fire is assisting the Lincoln Fire Department.

Four unmanned hoses were continuously spraying water on the rail car to keep it cool and keep the pressure down, as firefighters remained concerned that building pressure could cause an explosion, Berlant reported.

Evacuated areas included areas northeast of Highway 65 and Ferrari Ranch Road to the northern city limit, east of Joiner Parkway, south of Nicolaus Road and north of First Street.

Highway 65 was closed to southbound traffic at Wise Road and to northbound traffic at Ferrari Ranch Road. Motorists were being detoured.

Three evacuation centers were set up at Club Lincoln, the Community Center and the Kilaga Springs Lodge in Sun City Lincoln Hills.

City residents filed into the center at the Kilaga Springs Lodge about 7:30 p.m., many unsure of where they would be spendingr the night.

Arne Kalma, 70, and his wife, Sherry, said they weren't sure whether they lived inside the mandatory evacuation area. But when Sherry tried to drive home Tuesday evening, she was turned around by authorities.

"Propane is a dangerous thing," Arne Kalma said. "We're over a mile away, but if it explodes, who knows? If they're telling me that it's a dangerous place, I'm not going to argue with them."

The Club Lincoln evacuation center at Groveland and Ferrari Ranch was nearly empty shortly before 7 p.m. Bonita Brooks, leaving that center with her sister and a friend, said several nearby hotels were booked up, but that they had managed to find a room for the night.

About 8:30 p.m., Cal Fire's Berlant arrived at the Kilaga Springs center to inform evacuees that they would not be able to return to their homes Tuesday night.

A Red Cross trailer had already arrived at the center carrying cots and blankets in case the center needed to be converted to an overnight shelter.

"It looks like we'll have to just wait here until they tell us we can go home," said Michelle Sigur, 35, with her two children.

Her son, 10-year-old Dorin Wirth, had grabbed his back-to-school uniform before they evacuated – only to find out later that his first day of fifth grade today would be canceled.

"That's pretty cool," he said.

All 11 Western Placer Unified School District schools will be closed today because of the evacuation.

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Call The Bee's Matt Kawahara, (916) 321-1015. Bee staff writers Bill Lindelof and Whitney Mountain contributed to this report.