Lehigh County Executive Phillips M. Armstrong has provided the following statement concerning calls to the 911 Emergency Management Center regarding the fatal North Fair Street fire in which Heriberto Santiago Jr. and his 14-year-old nephew, Andres Javier Ortiz died.

“Lehigh County takes very seriously any complaint about the way our operators conduct themselves while serving the public,” Armstrong stated. “We scrutinize all complaints, regardless of their source, to make sure we are in compliance with best practices and that we are serving our residents in the best manner possible.”

Armstrong provided a time line of the call in question, and all calls related to the incident.

The following are the specifics for 739 N. Fair St., Allentown, fire call received July 27, 2020.

• Initial call, 11:22 a.m. received

• From this call, the call taker was able to obtain the address and nature of the emergency.

11:23 a.m. ready for dispatch.

11:23 a.m. police and fire dispatched.

11:25 a.m. police arrived.

11:27 a.m. fire departments arrived.

• One dozen calls were received between the initial call at 11:22 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. when the fire department arrived.

All calls confirmed the fire location

•Spanish speaking caller, called at 11:23 a.m.

This call was received and processed.

The call was immediately transferred to the translation line, which is standard operating procedure.

The call was handled correctly, without any concern for caller’s language.

The results of the call confirmed the fire location.

Heriberto Santiago Jr. call:

The call was received at 11:24 a.m. in English.

Heriberto Santiago Jr. mentioned he was trapped in the basement, due to a fire at 739 N. Fair St.

The call taker told Santiago that help is on the way; the fire department has been dispatched.

The call ended. Call taker could not return a call to the caller because the phone was an unregistered cellphone without a unique number.

•Computer Aided Dispatch system was updated at 11:25 a.m. to indicate an individual trapped in the facility

The voice recording and Computer Aided Dispatch system captures information, and that information isn’t overridden, it is memorialized in the record management system.

From this time line:

•It shows the 911 center received a call reporting a fire, and within three minutes, emergency personnel began to arrive on the scene.

•It also shows the 911 operators received a number of other calls, including one from Heriberto Santiago as well as a Spanish call that was properly routed to a Spanish speaking attendant. The call was received at 11:24 a.m. Santiago identified himself and spoke to the dispatcher in English, not Spanish.

•Santiago told the dispatcher he was trapped in the basement as a result of a fire. The dispatcher assured Santiago that help was on the way (the records confirm that police and fire had been dispatched at 11:23 a.m., one minute before Santiago’s call was received). The call was then disconnected.

•It was not possible to call Santiago back because he was calling from an unregistered cellphone without a unique number. Records reflect police arrived on the scene at 11:25 a.m., one minute after Santiago’s call was received, and fire arrived on the scene at 11:27 a.m., three minutes after Santiago’s call was received.

•All tapes pertaining to the incident have been thoroughly reviewed along with the 911 center’s computer aided dispatch system.

“Normally, we would not comment on pending litigation, but the baseless allegations made in a recent federal court filing are so inaccurate and so damaging to the public trust that we needed to correct the record,” Armstrong said in closing.