KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Early Saturday morning, the Knoxville Fire Department heard an alarm for the first time — a "Baby Box Alert."
The alert went off three minutes after a newborn boy was surrendered by an anonymous person. The box was installed in February, at Station 17 on Western Avenue. It gives people a chance to anonymously surrender infants and is the first of its kind installed in Knoxville.
"It's huge. It's the first baby in the state of Tennessee that has been surrendered into a baby box," said Mark Wilbanks, a spokesperson for KFD. "We're checking some very basic vitals on the baby, making sure that they're breathing appropriately, part of the basic care of a newborn would be making sure that the baby is warm and dry."
He said that every firefighter in KFD receives basic and advanced pediatric care training for situations like this. He said they're also trained on how to use a baby box.
According to Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the surrendered infant is going through medical testing. He will then be placed in the state foster care program for up to 45 days until the state terminates parental rights. He will then be placed in an adoptive family, once the adoption process is complete.
"This is what we consider to be an alternative to tossing a baby in a dumpster, leaving it in a backpack, and putting it down or on a riverbed," said Sen. Richard Briggs (R - Knoxville). "It worked perfectly, the way it was intended to work."
He spearheaded the effort to install a baby box in Knoxville.
According to the state's Department of Children's Services, around 80% of children adopted from foster care and adopted by their foster parents. Those families are given first preference when adopting a child becomes an option since they had already spent time with the family.