How A Missouri Fire Chief Handles Anonymous Newborn Surrenders

A fire chief is on a conference call with three attorneys when his phone lights up and the camera feed shows something he has trained for but never actually seen: a newborn inside a Safe Haven Baby Box. He blurts out “There’s a baby,” walks away from the call, and immediately shifts into a mission where failure is not an option. We talk with Chief Hendricks of the Melville Fire Protection District about becoming Missouri’s first Safe Haven Baby Box location, the public pressure that ca...