usps santa rosa california fire
A postal worker delivers mail to houses in fire-ravaged Santa Rosa, California.
YouTube/Douglas Thron
A surreal video shows a US Postal Service worker delivering mail to houses in a California neighborhood devastated by wildfires.

Drone photographer Douglas Thron said he was filming the destruction in Santa Rosa, California, when he noticed a postal truck driving past charred vehicles and houses that were burned to the ground.

"It was a trippy thing — he was actually delivering the mail," he told San Jose's Mercury News.

"I did a double take," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I watched him go to a half dozen mailboxes … It was like I was seeing something he wasn't seeing."

A local US Postal Service district manager said the mail carrier was honoring a request from customers who planned to return to their homes to collect personal items.

"This is an example of the long-standing relationship that has been established between our carriers and their customers based on trust," Noemi Luna told The Mercury News. "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."

More than a dozen wildfires ignited over the weekend in northern California. The flames have killed at least 23 people and destroyed almost 200,000 acres of land, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate.