Postal Service Honors Rural Carrier for Heroic Efforts During Housefire

COTTAGEVILLE, WV — While making her deliveries on Jan. 25, Rural Letter Carrier Dottie Sayre came upon a customer standing outside her burning house.

Sayre immediately asked the woman the whereabouts of her two young children before entering the home on her hands and knees in search of the 2-year-old and 4-year-old.

She entered the house a total of three times but was forced to give up on her search-and-rescue efforts once the boards began to fall off the walls. Unfortunately, the children were never found, and they perished in the fire.

The U.S. Postal Service will present Sayre with a Hero Award at 9 a.m. Friday, March 14 at the Cottageville Post Office, 53 Ole Mill Road.

“Dottie went above and beyond the call of duty,” said Cottageville Postmaster Michele Eskridge, who nominated Sayre for the award. “Although it wasn’t a good outcome, Dottie tried to get those kids out of the fire. She deserves recognition for what she did.”

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An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.