‘I was happy, ecstatic to hear the crying’: Infant found safe in fire station’s baby box

A newborn is safe after being found in a baby box located outside an Indiana fire station.

According to the Post-Tribune, Lieutenant Chuck Kohler’s department pager went off Sunday night with a medical alert. Kohler lives nearby and reportedly arrived at the Coolspring Volunteer Fire Department within minutes to retrieve an infant from the station’s Safe Haven Baby Box.

“I was happy, ecstatic to hear the crying, to know the baby is breathing,” Kohler said, adding that the baby appeared OK.

“It was exciting, an adrenaline rush that this is really happening.”

The newborn found Sunday is the second in five months to be placed in the station’s safe haven box. In November, Chief Mick Pawlik found an hour-old baby girl in the box. The girl, named “Baby Hope,” is living with a family that’s working to adopt her, Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder Monica Kelsey told the Post-Tribune.

“We are excited—another life saved,” Assistant Fire Chief Warren Smith recently told The Times of Northwest Indiana. “We just have to thank the mother for doing the right thing.”

In 2016, the nonprofit organization installed two baby boxes in Indiana—the one in Michigan City and the other in Woodburn.

The boxes are climate controlled but allow air circulation so the baby can breathe. Equipped with motion sensors, 911 is called when the box is opened and closed. The box also automatically locks once closed and can only be opened from the inside of the building that it’s attached to, according to NBC.

With only two safe haven boxes located in the state, Indiana lawmakers pushed to have additional boxes installed.

“A child who is adopted and loved—it’s amazing,” Kelsey said of the newborn, who he named “Baby Grace.”

“There are thousands of babies in Indiana looking for forever families, and this is just one of them.”

[Featured Image: Safe Haven Baby Box/Facebook]