MIDTOWN - Firefighters put out a smoking mailbox after a cigarette ignited flames on Broadway and 54th Street Thursday evening, officials said.
"I smelled something, and three minutes later I saw a lot of smoke coming out of the mailbox," said Roman Djalirlov, 21, an eyewitness who works in the Broadway Bicycle rental shop at Broadway and 54th Street.
After the fire was out, an officer from the United States Postal Service's own law enforcement agency, the Postal Police, was called to monitor the mailbox.
A supervisor from the USPS used a master key to unlock the mailbox, which was covered in chemical residue after firefighters put out the flames. After sifting through a pile of mail that looked mostly intact, the supervisor found the smoking gun: a cigarette butt.
"We see people hit the mailboxes, sometimes they put stuff in it that doesn't fit and it gets jammed, and sometimes people paint the boxes whatever color they want," the supervisor, who didn't want to be named, explained.
The mail that was not burned beyond recognition will be mailed to its destination, the supervisor said. Some recipients might get their charred letters delivered in a translucent plastic bag.