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Wonfor looked over at the woman. He was about three-quarters up the crane. When he reached the top, he was going to rappel down to her, fit her with a harness, then continue lowering them both to the ground.

“It might be a bit longer,” he said. “Did it take you this long?”

“No,” he recalled her saying.

“How did you do it?” he asked her. “Because if you have any speed tips, I’ll take them right now.”

The woman, who was later identified as 23-year-old Marisa Lazo, wasn’t wearing gloves or climbing gear — just the light jacket and black boots with heels. The understanding among emergency personnel, he said, was that she had climbed roughly 60 metres to the top of the crane, then slid 15 metres down a greasy wire to land on the hook. The question was, why would someone do that?

Wonfor didn’t ask her. “You don’t want to bring up why they’re there,” he said, discussing such situations. “Let’s make light of it, talk about the view. It was beautiful. We both wished we had cameras.”

The 22-year veteran firefighter is trained in high angle rescue. But the fire chief and captains who selected him for this particular rescue mission also factored in his experience as an arborist, working with ropes and climbing trees.

Wonfor said that once he started talking with the young woman, he thought “there was no way” she planned on jumping.

“She was too calm.”

The woman told him she feared she would be “in trouble” when she got to the ground. “She says, ‘I’m gonna get a big fine for this,’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘No, you’re good. If you get a fine, I’ll pay… I’ve got about 20 Tim Cards in my pocket.”