A video appears to show a disgruntled warehouse employee start a fire that set a 1.2 million square-foot warehouse on fire in Ontario, California. He filmed himself setting the warehouse on fire while blasting his employer for not being paid enough.
"You may not pay us enough to f*cking live, but these b*tches dirt cheap... There goes your inventory," Chamel Abdulkarim supposedly said during the video. "All you had to do is pay us enough to live. All you had to do was pay us enough to f*cking live."
NEW: Disgruntled employee starts massive fire at a 1.2 million square foot warehouse in Ontario, California.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 8, 2026
29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim was arrested on arson charges for setting a Kimberly-Clark warehouse on fire.
Abdulkarim apparently filmed himself on Instagram setting… pic.twitter.com/VSpZKh3CgF
NEW: Footage shows the aftermath of the Ontario, California, fire that wiped out a 1.2M-square-foot tissue paper warehouse.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 9, 2026
29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim was allegedly upset about his pay, so he decided to burn the whole warehouse down.
The warehouse served the tissue paper… https://t.co/3HfrwMmd9q pic.twitter.com/iUfFE7QQ5e
🚨 JUST IN: This is the DEVASTATING aftermath of a California warehouse fire started by “Chamel Abdulkarim”
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 9, 2026
Throw the whole LIBRARY at “Abdulkarim.” This scum needs to be locked up pic.twitter.com/yIyZ9ElQUU
Police arrested Abdulkarim for arson-related charges on Tuesday. The 29-year old has been confirmed as a staff member at NFI Industries, which manages the Ontario warehouse as a distribution hub for Kimberly-Clark. The company handles inventory for brands that include Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, and others.
Enormous fire has LEVELED a 1.2 million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse in Ontario, California.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 7, 2026
An arson suspect was arrested early on in the incident.
More than 100 firefighters responded to battle the blaze on Tuesday.
There were employees inside the warehouse when the… pic.twitter.com/5e9tt9DS2t
Alejandro Montero, a forklift driver working at the warehouse, confirmed that Abdulkarim was nowhere to be found during a safety headcount after workers had evacuated.
"We were kind of concerned for him at first, you know," he said. "So I don't know, a lot of anger too, I guess. We lost our jobs. He did that to everyone. He put everyone in that position."
Ontario Fire Chief Mike Gerken says the fire itself was suspicious as more than 140 personnel worked to put out the blaze.
"Definitely, it was uncharacteristic fire. Just the fire behavior that they were experiencing inside, and the rapid spread of that fire for such a large building to move that quickly," he said.
Imagine waking up this behind your neighborhood all because some Islamic arsonist didn't like how much his job was paying him. https://t.co/yHvwzKH3M8 pic.twitter.com/HrvMgklXUg
— Kim "Katie" USA (@KimKatieUSA) April 8, 2026
Abdulkarim's immigration status or country of origin has yet to be identified.
#BREAKING: A warehouse fire in Ontario, CA creates a truly apocalyptic scene this morning across the IE pic.twitter.com/EmtlLdJtV5
— OC Scanner 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 (@OC_Scanner) April 7, 2026
A 29-year-old man is accused of starting a six-alarm fire at a Kimberly-Clark paper goods warehouse in Ontario, California, where he worked. About 20 people were evacuated from the building. https://t.co/rijxZ5GTZc pic.twitter.com/ejMsiNVyYb
— CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews) April 8, 2026
