Hours after the devastating California wildfires tore through Santa Rosa, professional drone pilot Douglas Thron filmed a postal worker delivering mail to the ravaged neighborhood of Coffey Park.

Thron says while he was at the scene shooting aerial footage for NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday, he spotted the truck driving around the neighborhood. Thron tells Mercury News, “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.”

San Francisco USPS District Manager Noemi Luna provided the following statement to clarify why the mail carrier delivered the route:

 

“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.”