Ricardo Cancela, 46, works at the Sapadores de Coimbra fire station and was on watch early yesterday for possible fires near the stages of the Queima das Fitas. When students warned at 5:20 a.m. that a 20-year-old girl had fallen from the Santa Clara Bridge into the Mondego River, Ricardo Cancela jumped into the water. He took the victim and kept him safe until his colleagues from the diving team arrived. “I imagined her trying to hold on to something. I saw that he was uncomfortable and wouldn’t last long, so I jumped into the water and towed him to safety,” the firefighter said. Even though he was there on another mission, he didn’t hesitate to enter the water: “It took a little disconnect from the situation I was in, but even without the proper equipment, I had to do it.” According to the deputy chief of the bomb squad, Bruno Serra, the victim suffered from hypothermia and was injured.