Commissioners approve installing "baby box" at a Paducah fire station

Paducah city commissioners on Tuesday approved an agreement to allow the installation of the region's first "baby box" at a city fire station.

Paducah Fire Chief Steve Kyle said Kentucky law already allows for a parent to leave a newborn infant with an emergency medical service provider, police officer, or firefighter. The Safe Haven Baby Box Project allows that to occur safely and anonymously. The box would be an alternative to past tragic instances of infants being abandoned in unsafe conditions.

The box is an enclosed, temperature-controlled area that will be installed along a fire station’s outer wall. When a baby is placed into the bassinet inside the enclosure, an electronic alert system notifies emergency services so the baby can be quickly retrieved, taken to a local hospital and eventually placed into temporary foster care. 

The specific fire station where the baby box will be installed is yet to be determined.

Aside from installation costs, Kyle said that there are ongoing annual expenses to operate and monitor the box. Private donations presented to the nonprofit organization Hope Unlimited will cover the costs for the first year of operation. It was a local family through Hope Unlimited who made the original request to have a box placed in Paducah and McCracken County. 



Pictured: a Safe Haven baby box installed in Bowling Green, Kentucky. (AP file photo/Grace Ramey)