Washington state ferry evacuated in false anthrax scare

Associated Press

SOUTHWORTH, Wash. – An envelope labeled “anthrax” was found on a Washington state ferry early Tuesday, halting ferry service to and from this Kitsap County town across Puget Sound from Seattle.

Fire officials determined about 4 1/2 hours later it was a false alarm, and service resumed after three runs were cancelled, said Larry Keyes, a spokesman for the state ferry system.

Service between Vashon and the Fauntleroy dock in West Seattle was maintained with other vessels.

A ferry worker found the envelope about 1:30 a.m. as the 100-car Klahowya was about to leave on the final run of the night to Vashon Island and West Seattle, said Mark Fields, a Washington State Patrol communications officer.

Fields and Keyes said they had no other details on the envelope or where it was found.

Walk-on passengers from the Klahowya were taken by a passenger-only ferry to Vashon, and another ferry was sent to bring them and three or four waiting vehicles from the island to Seattle.

The Klahowya has a capacity of 1,200 passengers. Keyes said he did not know how many were on the boat when the envelope was found but added that a typical load at that hour is four to 30 vehicles and five to 10 walk-on passengers.

Southworth ranks last in passenger traffic among the four state ferry terminals in Kitsap County. Other routes linking the Seattle area and the county are Seattle-Bainbridge Island, Seattle-Bremerton and Edmonds-Kingston.

Other ferry runs also have been disrupted by false alarms since the discovery of anthrax spores, exposure and infections in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

Last Thursday night the ferry Kitsap was held at the dock in Bremerton for nearly an hour and a half when a powdery substance that turned out to be inorganic was found on the passenger deck.