Postal worker delivers to wildfire-hit Californian town

A drone photographer captured an amazing sight as he surveyed the devastation of wildfire-ravaged California – a postal worker delivering the mail.

The surreal moment can be seen on aerial footage shot over Santa Rosa in Sonoma County town.

There is barely a house left standing in the neighbourhood which largely resembles a war zone, with rubble, debris and burned-out cars as far as the eye can see.

And yet, a mailman goes about his business, delivering s, with little left but charred debris, broken walls, chimneys and the steel frames of burned-out cars.

He is seen stopping at one mailbox on the front lawn of a home that is no longer there.

Noemi Luna, the US Postal Service’s San Francisco district manager, was asked about her incredibly industrious worker.

"This is an example of the long standing relationship that has been established between our carriers and their customers based on trust," she told the Mercury News.

"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."

The deadly wildfire has now left at least 31 people dead in North California and charred around 170,000 acres of land and destroyed some 3,500 buildings.

Hundreds of residents are still unaccounted for after the near two dozen blazes that ignited on Sunday.

More than 300 square miles, an area the size of New York City, is still in flames, including part of the Napa Valley wine region.

While their cause has not been conclusively determined, they are thought to have been sparked by power lines toppled by gale force winds, and fanned by hot, dry "Diablo" winds that blew into northern California toward the Pacific.

Teams with cadaver dogs have begun to search the smoking ruins while many residents fled to shelters or camped out on beaches to await word on their homes and loved ones.