HEBRON, Ky. — The Hebron Fire Department is adding a new Safe Haven baby box to its facility on North Bend Road in Hebron, Ky.
The boxes are being installed by fire departments across the country, to give parents the option to safely, securely and anonymously surrender their newborn if they are unable to provide care.
All 50 states and D.C. have some sort of safe haven law, which allows a person to legally surrender an infant at a safe facility like a hospital or fire station.
Once a baby is placed inside the box, the device locks and sends a series of alerts to first responders.
A ceremony, led by Safe Haven founder Monica Kelsey, will be held in Hebron to bless the fire department's new baby box on June 8.
Since Safe Haven's launch in 2016, 21 babies have been surrendered to boxes across the country, and 121 have been handed off directly.
The boxes have been implemented in several different fire departments across Ohio and Kentucky in recent years; the first one to be set up in Hamilton County was installed in Delhi Township in January last year and later that same year Lebanon installed one at the city's new fire station on North Broadway. Another was installed in Lawrenceburg, Ind. in 2021.
However, in Union Township, the fire department opted to close its Safe Haven baby box earlier this year because of "burdensome" and "outdated red tape" from the Ohio Department of Health, according to officials with Union Township.
The Ohio Department of Health mandates that any location with a baby box of any kind have an authorized person on-duty inside the building around the clock, 24/7. Union Township said meeting that requirement hasn't been an issue since it installed the baby box in May of 2022, but now that's no longer feasible for the department, officials said.
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