He’s used to saving lives — but not quite like this.
A smitten Florida firefighter has adopted an adorable baby girl he discovered in an infant drop box back in January.
The Ocala smokeater, who did not want to be identified, heard a telltale alarm go off at his station around 2 a.m., according to Today.com.
The sound meant someone had deposited a child into the building’s Safe Haven Baby Box — although false alarms were common.
But after peering inside, the firefighter saw a tiny infant girl he would later name Zoey calmly gripping a bottle and peering up at him.
“She had a little bottle with her and she was just chilling,” he told Today. “I picked her up and held her. We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment.”
He had struggled to conceive a child with his wife for the better part of a decade, and the chance encounter instantly seeded thoughts of adoption that early morning.
“I didn’t call my wife right away because I didn’t want to wake her up, but I knew she’d be on board,” he said of his plan.
After transporting the child to the hospital, he wrote a note to administrators expressing his desire and readiness to adopt.
“I explained that my wife and I had been trying for 10 years to have a baby. I told them we’d completed all of our classes in the state of Florida and were registered to adopt,” he said. “All we needed was a child.”
The next call was to his spouse, who burst into tears of cautious hope.
“I was like, ‘Don’t get too excited yet,’” he said. “My biggest fear was that the note I wrote wouldn’t stay with Zoey and she’d be gone. It was a very stressful few days.”
But just days later, Zoey was safely cooing in their home — and would officially become their daughter in April.
“The way I found her — this was God helping us out,” he said.
The firefighter told the outlet that he wanted to share his story in the hope that the child’s mother would see it and find comfort knowing her daughter was in a nurturing environment.
“We want her to know that her child is taken care of and that she’s loved beyond words,” he said.
According to Safe Haven’s website, there are currently 148 boxes around the country, and 31 infants have been surrendered in them.
The program’s founder, Monica Kelsey, thanked the unknown mother for leaving the child in a safe place after Zoey was discovered.
“We want to address the parents who legally surrendered this infant. And right now I’m going to talk directly to her or him,” she said. “Thank you. Thank you for keeping your child safe. Thank you for bringing your child to a place that you knew was going to take care of this child. And thank you for doing what you felt was best.”