Jessica Rees did not know Vancouver firefighter Cindy Kampmeinert, but did everything she could to try and save her life after a serious traffic injury in Goa, India.

"I was with her essentially from the minute of the accident to the minute that she died," she tells CTV.

Rees has learned a lot about Kampmeinert over the past few weeks.

"I'm sure that we would have been friends," she says. "She was a real traveler...adventurous spirit."

Kampmeinert was travelling in India last month when the motorcycle she was riding collided with a bus. Jessica was visiting from England, and came across the accident scene.

"We just turned around the corner and Cindy was just lying there in the road," she recalls.

When Jessica realized Cindy was on her own, she hopped in the ambulance with her.

"I hope someone would do the same for me, I mean, I can't say why I went, it didn't cross my mind to not go."

Cindy was taken to a basic clinic and then a rural hospital. When staff saw she had insurance, the badly injured 41 year-old was taken to a private hospital.

"They said 'actually, because insurance takes a long time to process, we're going to need 20,000 rupees from you,'" says Jessica.

The traveler didn't have any money on her, and Cindy only had a small amount in her wallet. Eventually, staff told them the hospital didn't have a ventilator and they were being sent elsewhere.

"They knew how serious it was, and they turned her back on her and sent her away," she says.

Cindy and Jessica were taken to an over-crowded, under-staffed government hospital. Thanks to Jessica's insistence, another private hospital was contacted. There, Cindy was admitted without questions about money. She died there days later.

The fire department helped fly Jessica to Vancouver for Cindy's funeral earlier this week.

"I never got a chance to hear her voice or get a sense of her personality so it's been nice to sort of hear some stories and see some photos and really get a sense of the person that she was," says Jessica.

And Cindy's relatives are glad they got a chance to know Jessica.

"She'll always be part of our life for what she did. always, always," says Cindy's brother-in-law, David Williams.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber