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PARLEYS CANYON — Firefighters responding to reports of a grass fire in Parleys Canyon may have saved a woman's life after they happened to come across a man who they say was trying to hang her.

"They took action where they saw it needed to be," said Sgt. Randy Riches with the State Bureau of Investigations. "They didn't hesitate. They rushed right in. They're the real heroes in this thing.

"Without them, who knows what would have happened to her?"

Juan Echeveste Alba, 22, of Salt Lake City, was arrested Friday for investigation of attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping for allegedly trying to choke or hang a woman underneath an overpass on I-80 in Parleys Canyon.

Unified Fire Authority crews had been dispatched to a report of smoke at the mouth of Parleys Canyon about 8 p.m. Friday. They drove up the canyon a little ways but couldn't find anything, said Unified fire spokesman Eric Holmes.

As they were turning their vehicle around at the Quarry Exit off I-80, "there was a car blocking their passage through the underpass. So they backed up a little bit to see what was going on," he said.

What the four-man crew on the fire engine spotted was a man pulling a rope that was "strung over a metal pipe with the other end of the rope around the female's neck," according to a Salt Lake County Jail report. "The female was crying and attempting to grab at the rope that was around her neck."

"The male has a rope tied around the female's neck and strung from a pipe about 15 feet in the air on the side of the structure. And it appears to the firefighters he's trying to hoist her by her neck and hang her," Riches said.

After Alba spotted the firefighters, he forced the woman into his car in an attempt to avoid the firefighters, Riches said.

The firefighters got the woman out of the car and into their fire engine and then detained Alba until Utah Highway Patrol troopers arrived a short time later.

In addition to the attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping investigation, FBI agents were called and a federal detainer was placed on Alba.

The woman told investigators she had been punched in the stomach and dragged out of the vehicle. She said Alba placed a rope placed around her neck while he threatened to kill her, according to the report.

The woman was treated for minor cuts and bruises but was otherwise OK, Riches said, thanks mostly to the actions of the firefighters.

Holmes said one of the firefighters who helped with the rescue noted to him, "Risk a lot to save a lot."

"It's one of our credos, and I think it holds very true in this situation," he said.

"I guess it's better to be lucky than good sometimes. Had it not been for the smoke call and had they gone one more exit, they never would have found her. Pretty amazing story."

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