A burned-out mailtruck is covered from the elements behind the Lancaster Post Office on Harrisburg Avenue. The truck caught fire Wednesday while on rounds in Wilshire Hills.
The popular belief holds that neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.
Fire is another story.
A fire that engulfed a Lancaster mail truck Wednesday managed to disrupt mail service for one community, destroying hundreds of pieces of mail.
"It was an electrical fire in one of our trucks," Lancaster Postmaster Lou DiPerna said Thursday. "It was just one of those things that happens."
DiPerna said a mail carrier called for service after noticing smoke inside his truck about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Wilshire Hills area, off Columbia Avenue in Manor Township.
The carrier was parked and waiting for help along Kimberly Drive when he saw "flames coming out of the dashboard."
He called 911, and Manor Township police arrived and doused the flames, DiPerna said.
"He had enough sense to get out," DiPerna said. "I'm glad he didn't try to get the mail out of the truck. He could have been seriously injured."
The carrier was not injured, DiPerna said. The truck, although it sustained very little external damage, "is on the verge of being totaled. The inside is pretty close to a total loss."
The mail, too, fared badly.
"Some of it was burned beyond recognition," DiPerna said.
The outgoing mail that had been collected on the route Tuesday was "pretty much destroyed," he said. The mail that was still scheduled to be delivered was for the most part intact, he said — although much of it sustained smoke and water damage.
Most the incoming mail was delivered Thursday, along with a note explaining the reason for its damage and delay, DiPerna said.
Outgoing mail, on the other hand, will be returned to the sender where possible. In many cases, however, there is no legible mailing or return address.
All the mail that was not delivered Thursday will be inspected for contents that could identify senders or their intended recipients.
DiPerna said all customers on the route preceding Wednesday's fire were alerted that the mail they sent out that day likely will not reach its destination.
"We want people to know it was burned," DiPerna said.
The Wilshire Hills route serves about 450 residential and commercial customers, he said.
The carrier was back on the job Thursday, DiPerna said. The truck remains out of service.
E-mail Tom Knapp at tknapp@lnpnews.com.