A baby was safely surrendered Tuesday night at the Knoxville Fire Department's Safe Haven Baby Box at Station 17, according to the department. The box, located at 4804 Western Avenue, alerted crews around 7:45 p.m. on Oct. 20, 2026, and firefighters say they found the infant unharmed inside.
According to WVLT, station crew removed the baby quickly for further evaluation and hospital transport after the alert came in. The Knoxville Fire Department said the baby was not injured. Timothy Woods, cited in the WVLT report, said this marked the third time the Station 17 box has been used since it was installed.
That count conflicts with an earlier Knoxville Fire Department statement. Back in March 2026, the department told WATE that a surrender at the same box was only the second since installation. The discrepancy between the two counts has not been resolved, and the Knoxville Fire Department has not clarified which figure is accurate.
A Box With a Track Record
The Station 17 baby box was installed in February 2023 and was the first Safe Haven Baby Box in Tennessee, per the same WATE report. It offers what the station describes as a climate-controlled, secure environment with immediate notification to first responders, and is entirely anonymous, available to any parent in crisis 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the earlier surrender described by WATE as the box's second use, firefighters responding to a Safe Haven Baby Box alert found a newborn who appeared to be in excellent health. That baby received a short evaluation before being sent to Dolly Parton Children's Hospital for a full medical check-up. A separate, earlier incident at the same box involved a baby boy believed to be less than 30 minutes old, found unharmed by a three-person crew after a Baby Box Alert came in at 12:19 a.m., according to the station's report.
Tennessee's Expanding Network of Boxes
Knoxville's box is one of 33 Safe Haven Baby Box locations now installed across Tennessee, the most recent having opened in Sevierville. That box sits at Sevier County EMS on Middle Creek Road, part of a wave that began when Sevier County's first baby box opened in December 2025 at Gatlinburg Fire Station No. 2, according to WBIR.
WBIR's report put the statewide total at more than 40 babies surrendered through Safe Haven Baby Boxes specifically, part of a broader total of 147 infants safely surrendered in Tennessee since the state's Safe Haven Law took effect in 2001, according to state officials cited by NewsChannel 9. Nationally, there were 464 Safe Haven Baby Box locations at the time of the Sevierville report, the station's account notes.
Tennessee's Department of Children's Services lists the Secret Safe Place for Newborns of Tennessee Help Line as a confidential resource for parents considering a safe surrender: 1-866-699-SAFE.
