Eerie Drone Video Shows Postal Deliveries Continuing in Neighborhood Destroyed by Wildfire

Screenshot from video footage

A video posted to YouTube shows a United States Postal Service truck delivering mail in a California neighborhood that was devastated by wildfires.

Shot by professional drone pilot and photographer Douglas Thron, the video shows the truck making deliveries in the Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa.

Thron told The Mercury News that he was shooting aerial footage for NBC’s Today Show when he spotted the truck driving around the neighborhood.

“It was a trippy thing — he was actually delivering the mail. I was shocked to see him because most of the roads were blocked-off, but he obviously had access,” Thron said.

Delivering mail to homes that no longer exist may seem like an odd (and perhaps insensitive) thing to do, but USPS San Francisco District Manager Noemi Luna offered an explanation:

“This is an example of the long standing relationship that has been established between our carriers and their customers based on trust. The carrier in question was honoring a request by a few customers who were being let back in the fire zone to retrieve personal items. A few customers asked the carrier to leave their mail if the mailbox was still standing because they could not get to the annex to retrieve it.”