A warehouse worker has been arrested after a huge paper goods warehouse was destroyed by fire in Ontario, California.
The building was a distribution center for Kimberly-Clark, which makes (1) paper goods, diapers and personal products for brands like Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex and Cottonelle. The warehouse was operated by National Freight Inc. (NFI) Industries, a third-party logistics firm.
A statement (2) from the Ontario Fire Department and the Ontario Police Department says the 1.2-million-square-foot facility was quickly engulfed and the six-alarm blaze required 175 firefighters. The warehouse reportedly serves (3) about 50 million people.
According to a report (4) from CBS, Cal Fire officials said that although sprinklers in the building were active, “the flames were located throughout the warehouse,” suggesting the fire was likely not an accident.
No warehouse employees were injured in the blaze. But the statement from Ontario police and fire officials says one worker was initially unaccounted for and was later suspected of starting the fire. Police quickly located the individual.
“This fire was very quickly identified as suspicious in nature,” Deputy Chief Mike Wedell said, according to (5) ABC 7 News. “There was a subject of interest identified very early on in the incident. That subject has been arrested.”
Police say that Chamel Abdulkarim, a 29-year-old employee of NFI Industries, the third-party company that operates the warehouse, has been charged with multiple arson-related felonies and is being held without bail.
A video (6) circulating on social media appears to show large pallets of paper goods inside the warehouse beginning to burn. A person who seems to be holding the video recording device can be heard saying, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live. All you had to do was pay us enough to f—— live … There goes your inventory.”
CBS reported that Corporal Emily Williams said (4) at a news conference that police identified Abdulkarim after receiving several calls at the time of the fire that led them to determine the blaze was suspicious.
According to ABC 7, officials said that it was not yet known whether Abdulkarim was working when the blaze started, but he was present at the warehouse.
