Owensboro Fire Department fully installed the Safe Haven Baby Box at Station 1 on Saturday morning.
According to Owensboro Right to Life Executive Director Stacey Davis, the Baby Box is a private, heat-controlled drop-off.
The box has three silent alarms. The first will notify when the door opens, the second will alert if a baby has been dropped off in the box and the third will notify once the door is closed.
“When it closes, it is locked at that point. The alarms go to all of our local dispatch, our emergency services, obviously, the fire station is trained, and the fire staff is here, and so it goes through a process then,” Davis said.
The box is temperature-controlled, so it’ll remain warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
From there, the baby will then be evaluated at the Owensboro Health Regional Hospital to ensure the baby is healthy and then placed in a home.
Fire Chief James Howard said that the project has been a long time coming. When the legislation came with the passage of House Bill 155 — allowing the state to utilize baby boxes — he said he wanted to include Owensboro in the process.
“I was ready to engage and look for a partner. It was serendipitous; [Davis] showed up on my doorstep before I could show up on hers,” he said.
That’s when Stacey Davis, executive director of Right To Life of Owensboro, launched the fundraising campaign to get one in Owensboro.
A Safe Haven Baby Box will officially be making its way to Owensboro after successful fundraising efforts to bring a box to Owensboro culminated in late March, with a local family helping raise the final $8,000 needed to cover the project.
The boxes, which must be installed at Safe Haven locations such as a staffed hospital or fire station, have an alarm system that signals a newborn has been placed inside. This allows a parent to surrender their child safely, anonymously, and securely if they cannot care for the newborn.
“It’s important that these babies are not just thrown in dumpsters. Our goal is to save lives,” Davis said in May 2022.
Fire Station 1 is located at the corner of 9th and Locust streets.
