It was the perfect place for an infant to make her big debut.
AUSTELL, Ga. — It’s filled with trucks and sirens, but one fire station answered a different cry. It was the perfect place for an infant to make her big debut at the Austell Fire Station.
“She’s beautiful, she’s perfect,” said Austell Firefighter Bret Langston.
He has been on the job for 28 years and has responded to the tiny wail of a newborn infant half a dozen times.
“So, it’s not my first time delivering a baby,” he said.
As a father of six, he said he loves those calls and always wishes he could follow up.
“You always wonder, what happened to that child,” he said.
This time, he doesn’t have to wonder. The baby he delivered at his own fire station this spring was his own granddaughter, Adalynn.
Mom Hannah was halfway to the birthing center when she realized she wasn’t go to make it, but her dad’s fire station was just down the street.
She made it — just 10 minutes before her daughter was born.
“I was like, this is not right, this is not what we have planned at all,” she said.
But, baby Adalynn had other plans. Hannah’s mom, April Langston, helped deliver the baby with the help of Hannah’s doula in one of the bunk rooms of the fire station.
“It was unexpected, unusual, but it was a blessing and I wouldn’t change it. Everything went well,” said April.
“I joke with people, she was a surprise baby, she had a surprise birth, everything about her is just, surprise,” she said.
A surprise, too, for the dozen firefighters on shift when Hannah came in to the station.
“That was totally unexpected,” said Austell Fire Captain Mitch Parrott.
He said it’s only fitting for a family to grow at the place they all call home.
“We are more than just coworkers, we spend one-third of our lives together. We are like family here,” he said.
And this family stands by each other.
“I lost my daughter going on four years now. And this department has been behind me 110%, with helping me get through that,” he said.
Little Prezley Michelle Parrott died when she was just 18 months old. But how she lived inspires the firefighters at the station every day.
“So, to have a baby born in the fire station on my shift – I stood out in the hallway and cried a little bit. It was a big deal for me,” he said.
There were tears on Adalynn’s birthday at the fire station – and celebrations, too.
“That I am stronger than I think. I definitely feel a lot stronger now. after giving birth at a fire station,” said Hannah.
There’s now another member of the fire family.
“She will always have a seat at the table. Usually the rookie is the last to eat, but I think she’ll get to go to the front of the line,” said Bret.
Adalynn was already back to visit the fire station at just 12 days old – and Hannah said she’ll make sure to keep bringing her daughter back to visit her grandpa who helped deliver her — and to see where she was born.
