On Monday, the officials said a baby was safely surrendered by using The Woodlands Township Safe Haven Baby Box at Fire Station 6. Officials said the box provides a secure, anonymous option for the legal surrender of a baby. Once the baby is placed inside the climate-controlled box, a silent alarm alerts firefighters, and personnel respond within minutes.
The baby was safely taken to a nearby hospital for medical evaluation.
"This Safe Haven Baby Box exists for moments exactly like this," Fire Chief Palmer Buck said in a release. "We are grateful the system worked as intended and that the baby is now receiving the care they need."
The Safe Haven Baby Box operates under Texas' Safe Haven Law, which gives parents a legal, anonymous way to surrender a newborn.
Once at the hospital, Chief Buck said Family Protective Services is notified, and they work to find the baby a foster home.
"The most difficult thing yesterday was convincing the firefighters that they had given the baby enough hugs," Chief Buck said.
The chief said they added this resource a year ago after noticing an issue in the community.
"There were six babies in the summer of '24 that were found deceased or abandoned in the greater Houston area," Buck said.
Safe Haven Baby Box founder Monica Kelsey said they have hundreds of these at fire stations across the country.
"I was abandoned as an infant two hours after I was born," Kelsey said. "So, this is personal for me."
Kelsey said they only recently started adding the boxes in Texas.
"We actually focused on Houston when we came into Texas because we knew Texas was so large, but we went with where the problem was really happening the most," Kelsey said.
Kelsey said so far, six babies have been dropped off in their boxes across Texas. She said the baby in The Woodlands was the first in the Houston area.
Along with the boxes, they have a 24-hour crisis hotline to help connect people with resources and provide guidance on how to safely and legally surrender a baby.
The 24/7 National Safe Haven crisis hotline is 1-866-99BABY1.