When a Broward sheriff’s helicopter crashed into an apartment building, killing two people, a quick-thinking bystander grabbed a ladder to help the survivors get down from a burning roof.
Jerriel Moreland, a field manager for a roofing company, recalls propping the 16-foot ladder against the damaged building, climbing up halfway and helping the two injured firefighters last August. “I knew it was bad. I knew that much,” he said. “It was bad.”
Moreland drew applause and cheers Friday as he received the “Citizen Heroism Award” in Pompano Beach. He and many firefighters were part of a ceremony that recognized their actions on the day of the crash.
“He did what he had to do, on impulse,” Commissioner Beverly Perkins told reporters on Friday. “He happened to be at the right place at the right time to help somebody in need.”
Witnessing the crash
Moreland, 49, of Coral Springs, had started that Monday, Aug. 28, like any other work day.
As a field manager for Bentley Roofing in Pompano Beach, he was waiting out front for his wife, who also is a co-worker. She was set to deliver him his scrambled-eggs and coffee breakfast, but running a few minutes behind.
“I was already supposed to be on my way where I was going,” he recalled Friday.
But right after his wife pulled up, the crash happened at the building next door.
He ran to the road to get a better look, and saw the two firefighters who had fallen out of the sky “emerge onto the roof” of the apartment building. He moved quickly to help in case there was another explosion.
Various cellphone videos captured what happened. Some videos showed the helicopter still in flight with smoke trailing behind before it spun out of control, the tail beginning to break off, and crashed into the roof of the apartment building southwest of the Pompano airport.
Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel
Jerriel Moreland is congratulated by new Fire Chief Steve Hudson after receiving the Citizen of the year award from the Pompano Beach Fire Department on Friday. He was awarded for heroic actions at the deadly Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue helicopter crash that occurred in Pompano Beach on Aug. 28, 2023. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Another cellphone video showed Moreland with the ladder as the firefighters got to safety.
After the two men climbed off the roof, “they sat there for a minute, they both were hurt, one guy was very disoriented, the shock of what just happened,” Moreland said.
Sheriff’s paramedic Mikael “Mike” Chauguaceda and fire-rescue pilot Daron Roche both survived.
Battalion Chief Terryson Jackson, 50, died in the crash. Jackson worked for the Sheriff’s Office for 19 years. He was a Fire Rescue captain, but Sheriff Gregory Tony promoted him to battalion chief after his death.
Lurean Wheaton, originally from South Carolina, also was killed when the helicopter crashed. She was asleep in her apartment when the helicopter crashed, Wheaton’s niece wrote online.
A crash investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board will focus, in part, on whether there was a failure of an internal part of the engine or an issue with the maintenance of the engine.
Moreland said he was “just glad I was able to help.”
“If I was in that situation, I’d want somebody to help.”
He downplays his heroism award.
“I’m a regular guy. No hero.”
“Somebody had to do it.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash