VENTURA : Fire Set Inside Mail Collection Box

Postal workers Thursday were sifting through a pile of letters that were charred when someone set a fire inside a mail-collection box outside an east Ventura post office, officials said.

A Ventura resident reported the arson about 12:10 a.m. Thursday when he saw smoke pouring from the box outside the post office at 41 S. Wake Forest Ave., police said. It was quickly extinguished by firefighters.

Detective Jeanne Boger said arson investigators found what appeared to be pieces of fireworks inside the mailbox. Police have no suspects.

Dave Hall, a postal supervisor in Oxnard, where the damaged mail was taken, said the box contained 50 to 75 letters, of which about a third were destroyed.

Workers are sorting through the letters to return those that are damaged but decipherable, he said. The mailbox--the closest to the post office at the Aurora Drive exit--was not damaged and was being used Thursday.

The box was last emptied before the fire at 5 p.m. Wednesday.