An evacuation order for some 48-hundred homes was lifted just after midnight…and thousands of people have been returning to their homes this morning.

Even as firefighters and a specialized unit from Texas worked to put out the tanker fire in Lincoln, some people who live there ignored the warnings of the police and fire departments.

Fire Chief Whitt says others actually put themselves inside the mile-radius blast zone.

"They were from the area because they walked in… taking pictures, walking their dogs, we saw you know people with baby carriages moving forward.  There was a lot of people that probably shouldn't have been there."

Whitt says firefighters allowed the propane rail tanker to burn itself out last night after determining the car held less propane than previously thought.

(Capital Public Radio's Bob Moffitt contributed to this story.)