A local prosecutor is investigating a video posted on social media that appears to show a person setting fire to the California warehouse full of Kimberly-Clark Corp. toilet paper that was destroyed earlier this week.
“We are aware of the video, and it’s being investigated as the case is currently under review,” the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday in a statement.
Bloomberg News couldn’t verify the authenticity of the video, which was posted on social media platforms such as Reddit and Instagram.
In the video, an unidentified man said “all you had to do was pay us enough to live,” as pallets of toilet paper in a warehouse can be seen catching fire.
The video has a username attached that appears to match Chamel Abdulkarim, the 29-year-old employee of a third-party logistics provider for Kimberly-Clark products, who was arrested earlier this week on multiple arson-related charges and is being held without bail at the San Bernardino County jail.
“We know there’s a viral video at this point, allegedly of the suspect lighting things on fire,” said Dan Bell, a spokesman for police department in Ontario, California, where the warehouse is located. He declined to comment further, because the case is still under investigation.
NFI Industries, the operator of the warehouse, declined to comment on the situation, citing an ongoing investigation. Kimberly-Clark didn’t provide additional comment.
Roof Collapse
The six alarm fire took most of Tuesday to put out, leading the building roof to collapse and total loss of the products inside. The 1.2 million-square-foot facility serviced an area encompassing an estimated 50 million people.
Abdulkarim was initially reported as missing and was later suspected to have started the fire in the warehouse and quickly located by Ontario police, the department said earlier this week. There were no reported injuries.
Related: Toilet Paper Warehouse in California Destroyed by Fire; Employee Arrested
Kimberly-Clark, which owns the Scott and Cottonelle toilet paper brands, previously said it’s taking action to mitigate the impact and maintain deliveries. That includes identifying other shipping locations and securing additional warehouse capacity. No manufacturing assets were impacted and property damage policies are in place.
Some analysts have warned that disruption from the fire could lead to supply problems and hurt sales.
Top Photo: The Kimberly-Clark distribution center following the fire on April 7. (Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg)
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