Fire shuts down Melville postal facility, rerouting mail, official says

Mail processing was rerouted from a Melville postal facility after a fire shut it down Thursday.

The Melville Fire Department put out an underground transformer fire outside the U.S. Postal Service Processing Center at 160 Duryea Rd. after receiving a call at 4:10 p.m. Thursday, fire department spokesman Steve Silverman said in a statement.

“Due to the transformer fire, the facility was without power,” postal service spokesman Steve Doherty said in an email. “Thankfully, all employees were safely evacuated with no injuries.”

Silverman said that a second underground transformer fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. when power was restored. Firefighters again doused the blaze using chemical extinguishers, Silverman said.

Doherty said the fire did not damage the facility or mail. Mail was diverted to a Postal Service facility in western Nassau, he said.  

“We have emergency contingencies and continuity of operations plans built into our processing and transportation networks for just this reason,” Doherty said. “Despite the needed processing detour, the end customer should see no difference in their mail delivery.”