Video appears to show California Kimberly-Clark warehouse fire suspect starting blaze, saying: "Should have paid us more"
A disturbing social media video posted by someone believed to be the Ontario warehouse fire suspect shows a person holding a lighter and igniting pallets of toilet paper in the warehouse, saying, "Should have paid us more," as flames erupted.
Highland resident Chamel Abdulkarim was arrested by police on multiple felony arson-related charges for the massive fire that destroyed the 1.2 million square foot building on Tuesday.
The Facebook video post shows the start of the fire, with flames melting through the plastic wrapping of Scott toilet paper cases.
Abdulkarim, 29, has been identified as an employee of NFI Industries, which operates the Ontario warehouse site as a distribution center for Kimberly-Clark, whose portfolio of brands includes Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, and more.
"All you had to do was pay us enough to live," a person says in the video, walking through the warehouse, igniting pallets, saying, "There goes your inventory."
Forklift driver Alejandro Montero said that he had talked with the accused arsonist 15 minutes before the fire erupted around 12:30 a.m.
"I just met him that night. He was helping me load my trailer," Montero said. "I was working together with him right there for two hours before break and then right at break... I went to my car, and that's when it happened."
Montero says the dock loader, later identified by police as Abdulkarim, was nowhere to be found after a head count was taken once employees evacuated. Montero says he's got mixed emotions.
"We were kind of concerned for him at first, you know, so I don't know, a lot of anger too, I guess. We lost our jobs -- that, he did that to everyone. He put everyone in that position," Montero said, noting that he was sent the social media video. "I couldn't believe it, yeah. I couldn't believe it."
Ontario Fire Deputy Chief Mike Wedell said more than 140 personnel worked to extinguish the blaze, with assistance from the Riverside County, Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County Fire Departments, as well as the Riverside City, Rancho Cucamonga, Chino Valley, Corona, Montclair, Colton, Rialto, San Manuel and Los Angeles fire departments.
Clouds of black smoke covered the area, as ash flew in the air. Fire officials urged children and seniors near the fire to remain indoors due to the poor air quality.
Fire crews initially said the blaze was suspicious in nature.
"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," Ontario Fire Chief Mike Gerken said on Tuesday.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Kimberly-Clark said its supply chain network "is designed for continuity during disruptions and mitigating actions are already in motion." In other words, there won't be a toilet paper or diaper shortage or a disruption in supply due to the Ontario distribution center fire.
"I don't know what he had going on personally with the company or whatever it was. I know he wasn't a temp like us," Montero said. "I don't know how much he was getting paid, but I was making good money there. You know I'm a little bummed out. I lost my job."