Overnight on Tuesday, the skies lit up over Ontario, California, when a massive warehouse fire erupted. The facility is a distribution center for Kimberly-Clark, the maker of numerous home paper products, such as Scott and Cottonelle. Quickly, the blaze at the warehouse, located just miles due east of Los Angeles, was elevated to a 6-alarm fire that eventually gutted the building, which was over one million square feet in size.
🚨 JUST IN: An absolutely TERRIFYING fire has erupted at a California warehouse in Ontario
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 7, 2026
Firefighters are actively responding right now to the six-alarm fire
"It is all hands on deck as they try to contain the blaze." pic.twitter.com/GtoUDUa3vd
The fire’s size and spread posed a challenge, forcing crews into a defensive posture rather than an aggressive attack because flames had erupted in multiple locations throughout the facility. This led fire crews on the scene to speculate that arson was the cause.
No injuries were reported, as the fire broke out just after midnight, so fewer than two dozen employees had been on site. The last one to be accounted for was Chamel Abdulkarim, a full-time employee at the facility, and he was taken into custody that morning. One worker reported working alongside the suspect that night before they went on break, and it was shortly after that when the fires broke out.
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Abdulkarim has been hit with multiple charges of felony arson, and the case against him is rather strong. This wizard, disgruntled over the fact that he felt he was not being paid a sufficient livable wage, posted a video on social media of himself igniting pallets of toilet paper inside the sprawling warehouse.
UPDATE: Video allegedly from INSIDE the Ontario, California, warehouse where 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim of Highland started a fire on Tuesday that torched that building operated by consumer goods company Kimberly-Clark in San Bernardino County.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 8, 2026
The original Instagram account… https://t.co/I1jZIvOJcC pic.twitter.com/pQ6XSSTsPa
Pity the legal team that will try to exonerate their client; after providing that Exhibit-A for the state, he would be wise to save money and just opt for a public defender. Video captured from his alleged Facebook account (since taken down) shows him using a cigarette lighter to start a few fires, and from one angle, multiple pallets of products are beginning to be engulfed. Meanwhile, he is heard justifying his actions.
“You know, if you’re not going to pay us enough to live or afford to live, at least pay us enough to not do this sh**.” / “All you had to do was pay us enough to live. All you had to do was pay us enough to f***ing live. All you had to do was pay us enough to live.” / “There goes your inventory.”
Far more than inventory was lost. Estimates of the cost of the destruction will easily be in the tens of millions of dollars. And while this self-centered aggression may have felt cathartic in the moment, he has just eliminated the livelihoods of dozens of other employees.
This is the corrupted mindset that is taking root from years of activism, telling people that employers are inherently evil and that workers are exploited. It leads those with weak minds not to seek to better themselves and develop marketable skills; instead, they lash out and blame others for their lot.
One thing should put Chamel’s mind at ease. It appears he will not have to concern himself with covering his room and board and food supply for some time. That will be provided to him by the California penal system, so check those items off his list. Likely, though, he will be supplied a lower grade of bathroom tissue than he is accustomed to using.
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