Volunteer firefighter who rushed to help Hurricane Helene victims is threatened with arrest

Daily Mail UK ^ | October 3, 2024 | Joe Hutchison

[Morgana]

A volunteer firefighter using his own helicopter to help save Hurricane Helene victims was threatened with an arrest while halfway through helping an elderly couple.

Jordan Seidhom, a former cop and volunteer firefighter, has been using his personal chopper to reach those cut off from rescue teams following the devastating storm.

But while halfway through rescuing an elderly couple in Lake Lure, North Carolina, on Sunday, a senior official with the local fire department told him he would arrest him for doing so.

Seidhom brought his two-seater aircraft down in a parking lot after rescuing Susan Coffey from her her home, while leaving his own son Landon with her husband Michael at their isolated property.

The plan had been for Seidhom to return Susan to safety, before then returning for Landon and Michael in three separate trips, before the fire official threatened to have him arrested, he has claimed. Speaking with WJZY, Seidhom said he touched down in the parking lot after spotting a group of first responders.

When he landed, he said he was confronted by a fire chief who scolded Seidhom for not coordinating with the locally organized rescue efforts.

He said: 'In the middle of the whole conversation, I was greeted by the Lake Lure fire chief, or assistant chief, maybe. And he shut down the whole operation.'

Seidhom said that the official told him 'if you have that kind of experience you should be coordinating with us'.

[The Great RJ]

True it would have been better to offer your helicopter to local authorities to assist in the rescues, but but to threaten arrest for saving lives give me a break. The local Fire Chief handled this in an asinine way and could have more tactfully invited him as a fellow firefighter to help in the rescues.

I was a volunteer ambulance medic for over 20 years and worked in a major disaster when the Des Moines, IA area was hit with massive floods in 1993. While help from others was appreciated, we did not want some gung ho amateurs playing “Johnny and Roy” (EMS types will get the reference) and getting into trouble themselves.

[JimRed]

Pi$$ing contest...”I’m in charge, you have to beg me...”

Stupid to challenge effective volunteer help.

[JimRed]

The only reason they’re doing this is to limit the political fallout from aerial photographs of the disaster being televised.

Political fallout? Hurricanes don't discriminate among Republicans, RATs or Indies. And none of them could have done a thing to prevent it.

[Frank Drebin]

"While help from others was appreciated, we did not want some gung ho amateurs playing “Johnny and Roy” (EMS types will get the reference) and getting into trouble themselves."

Yeah. We wouldn't want Americans remembering that when the sh*t hits the fan, they can also help each other. No, they should sit and wait because professional help is only an hour...a day...a week...a month, and $750 for the entire life that just got ripped from you...away.

How about they just say, 'Thank You.', then STHU, walk away, and go actually help someone.

[Gnome1949]

Arrest me ! I demand a jury trial. I want the world to watch the trial.

[TexasGator]

“Don’t mess with your brothers in the fire department, it may be your house that is one fire.”

When he first landed an official started coordination. Then the chief stepped in.

[Tell It Right]

Sounds to me like the pilot was doing what he could to coordinate with others. From one of the articles linked to by the posted article:

He first contacted the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport’s Air Traffic Control tower to get clearance to fly over the airport. Seidhom said he got the clearance and was allowed to fly over the airport, which is a direct shot to the gap in the mountains he needed to get through in Lake Lure.

From another article, also linked to from the main posted article:

“Once we landed where emergency personnel were, I was met by a fire chief or maybe a captain, and he asked me who I was. I told him who I was, who I was with, just a local volunteer,” Seidhom said. The man was from an out-of-state fire department who’d traveled to North Carolina to help with the rescue efforts, Seidhom said. He believed the chief was from somewhere in Michigan. “I told him my background experience, law enforcement, firefighting, and pilot and he immediately started helping with coordination. He gave me radio frequencies to coordinate with them on, set up a landing area for me to come back with the other victim, and just basically started the rescue efforts; the policies and procedures that you would take coordinating with someone from an outside source or outside agency. And in the middle of the whole conversation and them blocking the road off, I was greeted by the — at that time I didn’t know — but the Lake Lure fire chief, or assistant chief, maybe. And he shut down the whole operation.”

[Theo]

You use the term “local authorities.” Does this man not have “authorization” to help his neighbor simply for being American? Do we need approval from an “authority” before lending a hand?

[PghBaldy]

This is Kamala’s (Joe’s) Katrina. I have seen many disasters (on TV) through the decades. This one is horrifically bad. There are probably many, many, people who could have been saved with actual leaders...

[Resolute Conservative]

Find another place to land.

[metmom]

The comments at the link are well worth reading.

People are disgusted by this and NOBODY is supporting the local or fed officials.

[metmom]

It really frosts me when people are threatened with arrest when they have not broken any lows but merely trampled on someone’s overinflated ego.

[freeandfreezing]

For pilots who are actively operating an aircraft, like a helicopter pilot would be during a drop off or pick up operation, it can be helpful to inform the local law enforcement types that aircraft flight operations are regulated solely at the federal level, and that interfering with a flight crew is a serious federal crime, particularly if the person doing the interfering happens to be carrying a dangerous weapon when they are intimidating the flight crew.

Smart local law enforcement types when they realize that 49 USC § 46504 applies to them, and some FAA or DOJ guy may decide to be a jerk, usually calm down.

[Political Junkie Too]

Seidhom said that the official told him 'if you have that kind of experience you should be coordinating with us'.

Translation: He's rescuing the "wrong" kind of people.

"We can't have you spending valuable resources saving some random mountain folk when we have an Assemblyman's mother-in-law's step-sister who needs help."

-PJ

[Glennb51]

I wasn’t all the time.

[wildcard_redneck]

“Political fallout? Hurricanes don’t discriminate among Republicans, RATs or Indies. And none of them could have done a thing to prevent it.”

The feds are doing a miserable job and will continue to do a miserable job and they don’t want it televised.

[fella]

The Same Biden-Harris Bureaucracy that is following orders to punish other designated enemies of “The Deep State” such as Trump(lawfare), Musk(Flight delays), Mayor Adams(Lawfare) Citizens in Red voting blocks(Disaster relief).

[DPMD]

No good deed goes unpunished.

[cld51860]

This is the America we live in now.

Thugocracy.

[Sirius Lee]

The government is at war with America.