Command staff from the Coast Guard 13th District and Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound were given a tour of a Washington State Ferries vessel on Thursday, Sept. 1.

The Coast Guard crew met with with Lynne Griffith, assistant secretary of the Ferries Division for Washington State Department of Transportation, and Rob Ruthschiller, a captain of the Wenatchee, aboard the ferry as it crossed Puget Sound.

The 13th district is home to the nation’s largest ferry system and the Coast Guard conducts regular inspections and security patrols in accordance with federal regulations to ensure the safety of the 24 million annual passengers. One of the local Coast Guard responsibilities is to regulate and enforce a 1,500-foot buffer zone around all large passenger vessels in Puget Sound.

Rear Admiral Mark Butt, commander of the Coast Guard 13th District, and Matt VonRuden, director of vessel maintenance and preservation for the WSDOT, discussed shipboard fire fighting systems utilizing carbon dioxide. CO2 systems are used to extinguish a fire by smothering it in a heavy blanket of the gas and are used for fire protection in machinery spaces, pump rooms, cargo holds, paint stores and galley exhaust ventilation ducts on board ships.