On April 7, 2026, in Ontario, California, a 1.2-million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse was destroyed in a suspected six-alarm arson fire. 

The fire was allegedly started by 29-year-old employee, Chamel Abdul Karim, after not being paid enough by the company. Karim posted a video of himself intentionally setting the fire to pallets of toilet paper on social media while repeatedly saying, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live.” 

The average salary for warehouse workers in that area is $18 per hour, while the CEO of Kimberly-Clark earns around $15.3 million. In his video, Karim argued that if he had been compensated more for his work, he would not have set the building on fire. 

Karim works for NFI Industries, a third-party distributor for Kimberly-Clark. The fire broke out around 12:30 am at the Kimberly-Clark facility at 4815 S. Hellman Avenue. 

The massive distribution center, which served as a primary hub for tissue and other paper products, supplied about 50 million people, according to authorities, and has now been utterly destroyed. The fire ripped through the warehouse, escalating into a six-alarm emergency, with video footage revealing the total devastation of the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse, causing an estimated $500 million in damage, according to prosecutors. It required over 170 firefighters and 20 engines to contain the flames, and while the structure is a total loss, no fatalities were reported.  

Karim is currently being held without bail and now faces several felony arson charges. He is pleading “not guilty,” and has reportedly compared himself to Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. 

After the initial arson, several other fires have erupted throughout the country. 

On April 10, 2026, in Ontario, multiple fires were intentionally set inside the Ontario Mills Mall, only three days after the Kimberly Clark fire, resulting in the arrest of another suspect. 

In another instance, a man by the name Daniel Moreno-Gama was allegedly caught on video surveillance throwing a Molotov cocktail outside of CEO Sam Altman’s house. Moreno-Gama was arrested about an hour later outside OpenAI’s headquarters, where he allegedly threatened to burn down the building.

Meanwhile, on April 11-14, 2026, in Bakersfield, California, multiple fires occurred at a warehouse complex near 99 Washington Street, involving highly combustible material. A massive five-alarm fire had also erupted at a lumber pallet facility in Wayne County, Ohio. 

At the moment, it is speculated that there could be somewhere between 9 and 11 new fires since the initial Ontario one. However, the situation has divided many people online. 

Some argue in favor of the fires and support the arsonists, while others stand firmly against them. 

Many of those celebrating it online say they are fed up with low wages and corporate greed, and some say that if there are no changes, there will likely be more fires. Some even speculate that this may be the beginning of a working-class revolution and that it is even inevitable. Many have also begun pointing to a video of Tim Gurner, an Australian property developer and millionaire CEO, saying that they need unemployment to rise to about 50% to “remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around.” Videos like this have caused many online to say that billionaires and CEOs have it coming. Some hope that if warehouse fires continue, insurance companies may be persuaded to stop paying out to companies that underpay their employees. 

Meanwhile, on the opposite side, people are stating that these arsonists are massively dangerous and could get people killed from the destruction they are causing. People are reminding those celebrating that the fires have destroyed necessities for many people and cost other workers their jobs. They argue that these actions are reckless and selfish, and it would have been better if these employees had quit their jobs. 

It also harkens back to the BLM fires during 2020 over the death of George Floyd, where protestors set fires to trees, cars, and many small businesses, causing massive damage and violence. 

Overall, this situation is very serious and stems from long-standing dissatisfaction among blue-collar workers and the middle class with the current state of the economy, and it does not appear to be slowing down.