[jlbooker]

Here's a good follow-up video from the same news org: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8ICG0iaHqw

Spoiler: They ended up dragging the husband through the (raging, debris filled) river after he hiked himself down the mountain, instead of letting the helicopter pick him up. Not 24-hrs later, they were asking for private helicopter pilots to go do exactly the same sort of thing. According to the video above, the pilot had checked in with incident command at the Hickory regional airport, and they were only selling fuel to pilots who joined the rescue mission with them. The town manager in this video is stretching to defend the fire chief.