I thought they would not let him go into the affected area?

Mainly because he is solo, and if something happens to him, (breakdown [ they don't know how well he maintains his helicopter], accident etc) they cannot come after him.

Also, if he is not using their communication frequency they cannot alert him to other aircraft, so there is the possibility of near misses etc.

I am sure this would have been explained to him however, I doubt they were polite.

I suspect the fire chief story is similar... if a civilian rescuer gets into difficulty, they may not be able to help them.

I did think they could have added the supplies being brought to their stores, but, there maybe the thought that they are not fresh, have been tampered with... the official rescue agency does not know.

Again, they probably were not told very politely.

Just an alternative idea on what is going on.

The fire chief that is being mentioned, looks very young for that job... which is probably not helping