Inmate charged with rape at Coal Hollow Fire base camp

Inmate charged with rape at Coal Hollow Fire base camp

An inmate from Idaho who was released to help battle a wildfire in Utah is accused of raping a woman who was also helping with the fire.

Ruben Hernandez was charged with first-degree felony rape on Friday after he allegedly sexually assaulted the woman.

The women, who was not named, reportedly ran the base camp’s wash trailer that the inmate was assigned to.

She told police the man flirted with her throughout the past week and went into her trailer on Thursday to ask her for her phone number, according to the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office.

After the woman gave someone else’s number “to get him off her back,” police said the man started to assault her.

She reportedly didn’t fight back or yell “because she knew he was a prisoner and did not want to get hurt,” police said.

She told camp security guards about the assault, and they later detained the man until police arrived.

The man is being held without bond. He was serving prison time on a drug-related conviction.