Baby saved by Tennessee’s first baby box… just 30 minutes after birth

A baby just 30 minutes old was safely surrendered to a Safe Haven Baby Box in Knoxville, Tennessee, early Saturday morning. It was the state’s first baby box surrender since the box was installed in February.

According to WATE, three crew members at Knoxville Fire Department Station 17 responded to the box’s alarm, which was triggered just after midnight. They recovered the baby boy less than two minutes after he had been placed inside.

The Safe Haven Baby Box organization installs temperature-controlled boxes in places like fire stations. The box allows a parent to utilize their state’s safe haven law, which enables the parent to legally surrender their child within a specific time frame after birth. When the child is placed inside, a silent alarm is triggered and help arrives in minutes, as it did in this Knoxville surrender. Tennessee law permits infant surrender within two weeks after birth.

READ: Two newborns 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 that is in crisis and doesn’t know what to do with a child, has a place to go,” Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks with KFD said.

Wilbanks also noted that the box’s design purposely gives the parent anonymity.

“When they close the door, it takes just a minute for the station to be alerted; that’s the anonymity part of the box itself, it does not 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 were,” Wilbanks said.

He also praised the baby boxes, which are intended to help curb the problem of infant abandonment.

“It may sound a little bit hard to say, but we don’t want them putting the child in the dumpster; we would much rather them place the child in this box where it’s safe and has an opportunity,” Wilbanks said. “So this is simply that, this is a resource for the community and it makes us feel great to know that it did some good within three months of installing it.”

Editor’s Note: Find out what your state’s Safe Haven laws are here. Learn more about Safe Haven Baby Boxes here. 

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