Woodward Mail Carrier Saves Christmas Mail When Jeep Catches Fire

A mail carrier risked her life this weekend to save Christmas for dozens on families along her normal delivery route.

It all happened Saturday when Crystal Castor noticed smoke coming from the engine compartment of her Jeep while delivering the mail just outside of Woodward.

"I saw smoke, so I reached under here to kind of pop it up and it was hot, so I looked under there and was just like flames," Castor said.

Castor's delivery Jeep sat charred in the front yard of a poster service customer's house on Sunday. The Jeep was quickly consumed by fire but not before Castor got all the mail out of the back. She said it was full of Christmas packages and letters. Some of them got singed and wet but the majority were saved.

Venita Matthews saw the whole thing happen in front of her house as Castor tossed everything out of the burning SUV.

"Fire is coming out of this jeep all the time she's doing this," she said. "It was scary. I mean it was blazing."

Matthews was not surprised Crystal put others before herself.

"She goes above and beyond the call of duty and she's an exceptional person and we just love her to death," she said. "For older people like me and my husband it's real security 'cause we know if we need help, she drives up, she'll help us. She'll help us do whatever we need to do. She's wonderful."

Castor said it was just part of the job she loves to do every day and added all of the mail carriers she works with in Woodward would have done the same for their customers.