A Ferndale woman who prosecutors allege sprayed her boyfriend's tent with lighter fluid and lit it on fire while he was inside was sentenced to nine months in jail for second-degree assault, domestic violence.

Jennifer Marie Sharp, 26, could get 60 days off her sentence if she participates in 60 days of in-patient treatment. She was sentenced Sept. 12 in Whatcom County Superior Court.

The assault occurred this July, while Sharp was camping with her 34-year-old boyfriend at the Swift Creek campground near the bend in Baker Lake. The two had been arguing and Sharp demanded the car keys from her boyfriend, who refused because she had been drinking, according to court documents.

Her boyfriend went to the tent to get away from her, and while he was lying inside he smelled lighter fluid. He looked up to see the tent on fire, and saw Sharp squirting lighter fluid onto the door of the tent and lighting it, according to charging documents. She then pulled out the tent poles and collapsed the tent onto him. He was able to escape through a burned hole in the tent.

Once he was out of the tent, Sharp started throwing firewood and bottles at her boyfriend, then hit him with a camping chair, kicked him in the crotch and hit him several times with a wire cooking rack, according to the documents.

When Whatcom County Sheriff's deputies arrived, her boyfriend had welts, bruises, cuts and scrapes but no serious injuries.

Reach ZOE FRALEY at zoe.fraley@bellinghamherald.com or call 756-2803.