By Ashley Perham, Charleston Gazette-Mail
ST. ALBANS, W.Va. — A proposed “baby box” in St. Albans has been fully funded just a week after the project was announced, the St. Albans Fire Department announced Monday.
Chapman Technical Group, an engineering and architectural consulting firm based in St. Albans and Buckhannon, pledged the total needed amount of $18,000 to the project.
The money will be used to buy a baby box, also called a newborn safety device, for St. Albans’ Central Fire Station. The boxes were legalized this year by the West Virginia Legislature and allow newborns to be safely and anonymously abandoned.
The boxes are climate-controlled containers with an abundant oxygen supply. They are connected to an alarm that sounds when a baby is placed inside the box.
Before the new legislation, babies under a month old could be abandoned at a hospital, health care facility or fire department, but not in a baby box.
