Just a baby 30 minutes old was safely surrendered to a Safe Haven Baby Box in Knoxville, Tennessee, early Saturday morning. It is in the state first surrender of the baby box since the box was installed in February.
According to WATE, three Knoxville Fire Department Station 17 crews responded to the box alarm, which was triggered just after midnight. They recovered the baby boy less than two minutes after he was placed inside.
The Safe Haven Baby Box organization installs temperature-controlled boxes in places like fire stations. The box allows a parent to use their state’s safe haven law, which allows the parent to legally surrender their child within a certain time frame after birth. Once the child is placed inside, a silent alarm is triggered and help arrives within minutes, just as happened in the Knoxville surrender. Tennessee law Surrender of the baby is permitted within two weeks after birth.
READ: Two newborns were safely surrendered thanks to Indiana Safe Haven baby boxes
“The whole purpose of this box is to be a resource for our community, that a mother or a parent who is in crisis and doesn’t know what to do with a child, has someone to go to,” said Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks. KFD said.
Wilbanks also noted that the design of the box is meant to give the parent anonymity.
“When they close the door, it only takes a minute to alert the station; that’s the anonymity part of the box itself, it doesn’t immediately alert us to the fact that there’s a baby in the box, and that gives the person time to leave the fire station without us knowing who they are,” said by Wilbanks.
He also praised the baby boxes, which are intended to help curb the problem of baby abandonment.
“It might be a little hard to say, but we don’t want them to put the kid in the dumpster; we’d rather they put the kid in this box where it’s safe and has a chance,” Wilbanks said. “So it’s simple, it is a resource for the community and it makes us happy to know that it has gone well within three months of its installation.”
Editor’s Note: Find out what your state’s Safe Haven laws are here. Learn more about Safe Haven Baby Boxes here.
