The suspect in a massive blaze at an Ontario warehouse posted videos that appeared to show him lighting the fire and griping about being paid low wages, according to video reviewed by The Times.
Crews responded to the 1.2-million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark paper products facility early Tuesday morning and were quickly forced out due to “extremely rapid fire growth,” according to the Ontario Fire Department.
The fire caused the building’s roof to collapse and escalated to a six-alarm blaze, requiring the response of around 175 firefighters and evacuation of about 20 employees.
Ontario Police Cpl. Emily Williams told KTLA that police were investigating the video. “We have had reports that he did give some information on social media,” Williams said.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, of Highland was arrested in connection with the blaze, according to authorities. Abdulkarim was employed by NFI Industries, a third-party distribution company for Kimberly-Clark products, fire officials said.
On his non-public Facebook page, Abdulkarim had shared several first-person videos in which a man — presumably Abdulkarim — is seen lighting fires in a warehouse. Alex Montero, who said he met Abdulkarim in the warehouse that night, obtained screen recordings of the videos by way of a mutual friend on Facebook.
“You know, if you’re not going to pay us enough … to afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this,” the man says while lighting a roll of toilet paper on fire.
In a subsequent video, the person filming continued to light fires as radios in the background relay fire reports and evacuation instructions to employees.
“All you had to do is pay us enough to live,” the narrator says as the camera focuses on several stacks of paper products beginning to catch fire.
“There goes your inventory,” he says in a final video as the flames began to spread out of control.
The Ontario Police Department did not immediately respond to questions from The Times about the videos.
“It was him that posted himself doing it,” Montero wrote in an email to The Times, referring to the videos. “If not, I wouldn’t have put it out there like that.”
Times staff writers Clara Harter and Joseph Serna contributed to this report.
