The worker who burned down a warehouse full of Kimberly-Clark paper products in Ontario this week railed against corporations and compared himself to Luigi Mangione in messages to coworkers after starting the fire, authorities said at a press conference Friday.
Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, is facing both state and federal charges in connection with a fire that broke out after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, where 20 other people were working.
Authorities say a video posted to social media shows Abdulkarim starting the fire. In the video, a voice is heard talking about workers’ pay while a hand reaches out and starts to burn paper products stacked on a pallet, as other small fires are already burning in the background.
According to First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Abdulkarim started the fires then texted a coworker afterward comparing himself to Mangione, the 27-year-old man who has become an anti-capitalist folk hero for some after allegedly killing the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare on a New York sidewalk.
“Look, America is founded on free enterprise and capitalism,” Essayli said. “Anyone who attacks our values, our way of life, our system, which provides the best goods and services to the most people, we’re gonna come after aggressively.”
San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Jason Anderson said he has charged Abdulkarim with one count of aggravated arson and six counts of arson of a structure. Abdulkarim faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted on all counts. The fire destroyed some $500 million in paper products and destroyed the warehouse, valued at $150 million, Anderson said.
“Arson to me is a real head-scratcher. I do not understand … somebody who is suspected of arson does something where they get no value out of it, other than to displace people from their jobs, to ruin commerce, to get in the way of labor, to put people in physical harm,” Anderson said. “We want to be certain at least for our residents, as sensitive as we are to arson in this county, particularly in Southern California, that these crimes are taken very, very serious.”
When firefighters first arrived, they were quickly forced out of the building due to “extremely rapid fire growth” and assumed a defensive position, battling the blaze with high-volume hoses, according to the Ontario Fire Department.
The conflagration caused the building’s roof to collapse and escalated to a six-alarm fire, requiring the response of around 175 firefighters.
Abdulkarim was arrested in connection with the blaze later that morning. He was employed by NFI Industries, a third-party distribution company for Kimberly-Clark products, fire officials said.
He will face state charges first, officials said.
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