Mayfield dedicates its new Safe Haven Baby Box

A dedication and blessing ceremony was held on Monday for Kentucky's newest Safe Haven Baby Box.

The Mayfield Fire Department officially unveiled its new baby box at Station 1. It's the 70th installed in Kentucky for parents in crisis to anonymously surrender a newborn less than 30 days old. There are 472 such boxes installed across the country.

The secure, temperature-controlled devices are installed in an exterior wall of designated hospitals, police or fire stations that are staffed 24 hours a day. 

Station 1 celebrated its own grand reopening in April, rebuilt from the 2021 tornado. Fire Chief Jeremy Creason said the baby box was always a priority in the fire station's rebuilding plans.

The new fire station was designed so that no security cameras are aimed at the exterior wall where the baby box is located, to insure anonymity for parents placing a baby.

There are now three Safe Haven boxes in western Kentucky. Paducah installed a baby box at the Broadway fire station in 2024. In 2025, a baby box was opened at the Murray police station.

When the outside door of the baby box is opened, a silent alarm triggers to alert on-staff personnel and dispatch. Once the infant is safely placed inside the bassinet and the outer door is closed, it locks automatically so the baby cannot be accessed from the outside.

Typically, the child is retrieved from the Safe Haven box within two minutes to provide medical evaluation.

Safe Haven laws allow a parent to legally and anonymously surrender an unharmed newborn infant to designated professionals without facing criminal prosecution for abandonment.

All fifty states have safe haven laws. Kentucky passed their legislation in 2002.

Since 2017, 83 infants have been safely surrendered in Kentucky through Safe Haven Baby Boxes.


(Photo Mayfield Fire Dept. Facebook)