Postal worker saves packages from burning mail truck

BAXTER, Minn. (KMSP) - A postal worker in central Minnesota is being credited with saving Christmas.

Maybe not the whole holiday, but at least for a few families.

Michelle Price and her three children left a holiday lights display in Nisswa before the fireworks.

But they still saw quite a show on the drive home.

"As we were driving down the right side of the road, I saw a flame out of the corner of my eye and a lady running from the truck," said Price. "I pulled in quick because no one was there. I wanted to make sure she was ok."

It turns out a fire had started in the engine compartment of a mail truck on Highway 371, just north of Baxter, and the flames were threatening to spread to the rest of the vehicle.

"I was a little scared and worried," said Price. "I had my three children with me, so I made sure they stayed back in case it exploded. I wasn't sure if it was going to reach the gas tank and explode. It was just very intense."

After calling 911, Price used her cell phone to videotape the fire as postal carrier Kia Rodman risked life and limb to pull the packages in the back of the truck before firefighters eventually extinguished the flames.

"She was really just worried about it being Christmas time and people having packages that they ordered or gifts that they had. She was really worried about people losing stuff they had for Christmas," Price said.

They say neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night can keep postal carriers from completing their appointed rounds.

But now they can add a burning mail truck to that list.

"I just think she did go above and beyond and it's amazing. She was worried more about the packages, I believe, than herself, but she's very brave and I think it's amazing she was able to do that," Price said.

Rodman was treated for a mild case of smoke inhalation, but Fox 9 learned she is doing just fine.