138 Fire Stations Added to Infant Surrender Sites
The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved 138 county fire stations as safe surrender sites for newborns.
Only hospitals and Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange had previously been designated as sites where newborns up to 72 hours old could be left without threat of criminal prosecution.
Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said adding the sites was not done to encourage abandonment of newborns but as a safe alternative.
In 2001, 52 babies were abandoned in the state and only 11 survived. In Orange County, nine babies were left at hospitals in that same period.
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