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.