Nature Shakes County Up, Wets It Down : Unusual phenomena: Officials say earthquake damage in the area was negligible. June rain causes two major crashes.

A Southern California earthquake and a June rain on Friday caused some jangled nerves and two major accidents in Ventura County, but the unusual phenomena left no serious injuries.

The earthquake at 7:43 a.m., centered 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles, delivered a jolt felt in Ventura County that was followed by about 15 seconds of rolling motion.

Authorities said the temblor caused negligible damage to area roads, bridges and public and private property and left the county’s 439 unreinforced masonry buildings intact.

“People talked a lot about shaking and rattling, but we have no reports of anyone losing anything,” said Karen Guidi, assistant director of the county Office of Emergency Services.

Meanwhile, the first June rain in three years dampened the southern half of Ventura County during the morning and early afternoon with less than 0.10 inch of rain, but dropped nearly 0.75 inch in the mountainous area of Matilija Canyon north of Ojai.

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted at that much rain,” said Dolores Taylor, the county hydrologist. “Some little cloud must have just stood on its head right over the area.”

The rain may have reduced fire danger in the Matilija region, Taylor said, but it merely washed off the streets and sidewalks in the urban areas of the county.

More light showers carrying no more than 0.10 inch of rain were predicted for early this morning, but were expected to pass by 10 a.m., Taylor said.

After today, however, the county’s weather is expected to be sunny and warmer throughout the week, said National Weather Service meteorologist Terry Schaeffer.

“It looks like we’ll finally have summer,” Schaeffer said.

Friday’s rain made county roads slick, causing a pair of big-rig truck accidents on the Ventura Freeway that tied up traffic for two hours.

Francisco Martinez, 41, of Oxnard was heading south on the freeway between Vineyard and Rose avenues in Oxnard at 11:16 a.m. when he lost control of his truck. The tractor-trailer slammed into the center divider where it remained suspended, partially blocking oncoming northbound lanes, said California Highway Patrol Officer T. J. McAllister.

Martinez escaped before leaking fuel caused the truck to burst into flames. “He was traveling at unsafe speeds for the wet road conditions,” McAllister said.

Forty minutes later, as drivers swerved to avoid backed-up traffic at Central Avenue east of Oxnard, two cars and another big-rig collided in the northbound lanes.

Truck driver Jeffrey Eugebrecht, 22, of Ontario; car driver Russell DiLando, 40, of Ojai, and his passenger were not injured. The driver of the second car, Frances Raldiris, 35, of Camarillo, and her husband and two children were taken to Pleasant Valley Hospital with back and neck pains. They were later released from the hospital, a nursing supervisor said. Unusual as the rain was, most talk Friday was about the early morning earthquake. Despite the lack of earthquake damage in the county, scientists say that a more damaging temblor in Ventura County is inevitable. That prediction is one reason the city of Ventura--with a stock of 143 unreinforced masonry buildings--is considering an ordinance that would require that those buildings be reinforced.

Tom Wood, who owns seven unreinforced buildings in downtown Ventura, has maintained that the city should only require minimal building improvements that would protect life during an earthquake. He opposes a proposal for a higher level of upgrading to protect buildings. Wood said Friday that he had not changed his mind.

Wood was attending a meeting with merchants when the early morning quake rolled through town. “I stopped the meeting and pointed outside at all of the devastation,” Wood quipped.

Times correspondents Rhonda Nowak and Paul Payne contributed to this story.