A Ferndale woman was arrested on suspicion of dousing her boyfriend's tent with lighter fluid and igniting it while he was inside late Wednesday, July 11.

Jennifer Marie Sharp, 26, and her boyfriend were arguing about a past lover at the Swift Creek campground, near the bend in Baker Lake, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff's office. After a while, Sharp demanded the car keys, but the boyfriend wouldn't give them up because she had been drinking.

The 34-year-old boyfriend decided he didn't want to argue anymore. So he went into a tent and tried to sleep it off, said sheriff's Sgt. Larry Flynn.

About 10 p.m., Sharp soaked the tent in lighter fluid, then lit the door on fire, Flynn said. The tent took a lot of damage, but the boyfriend escaped without any serious burns.

"Fortunately," Flynn said, "the flame-retardant qualities of the tent kept the whole thing from going up."

When the boyfriend escaped the tent, Sharp attacked him with "pieces of firewood, and camp chairs, and cooking utensils, and various other things," Flynn said.

Then she broke a car windshield and wandered off into the dark, Flynn said. Deputies picked her up as she was walking toward Highway 20. She was booked into Whatcom County Jail on investigation of arson in the first degree and domestic violence assault in the second degree.

The victim had welts, bruises, cuts and scrapes, Flynn said, but no serious injuries.

Reach CALEB HUTTON at caleb.hutton@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2276.