Firefighters save 5-week-old baby locked inside hot car

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) - First responders in Tennessee rescued a 5-week-old baby locked inside a hot SUV earlier this month.

Police responded to a call for a welfare check on the evening of June 13 after a woman in a Kroger parking lot said she saw a woman acting strangely.

“Your stomach drops because you don’t know how the outcome is going to be,” firefighter Tyson Donaldson said.

When officers arrived, they found 27-year-old Alexandria Lee standing outside a locked SUV swaying to keep her balance.

When he arrived on the scene, Donaldson said he got out of the truck and walked over to the police officers. They told him there might be a baby in the back seat of the car.

The car windows were tinted and the weather was extremely hot, so they wasted no time and smashed the windows to get in, WSMV reported.

“You could feel the heat coming out of the car,” engineer Marc Cartwright said. “When we broke the window and got the back door open, we immediately got the baby out of the car seat. It was very hot to the touch, sweaty, almost lifeless.”

As the men worked to cool the baby, an off-duty nurse came over to help.

“He had on a little onesie. We took that off and actually dipped the onesie in ice water,” fire captain Tim Lampitt said.

Police said they found a half-empty bottle of tequila in the car and arrested Lee. As for the baby, the firefighters’ quick actions saved his life.

“It’s the reason we do the job. We might have 10 bad outcomes, but the one makes it worth it.,” Donaldson said.

Copyright 2022 WSMV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.