On the night of Tuesday, April 7, a Kimberly-Clark distribution center containing large stocks of toilet paper, napkins and paper towels burned down in Ontario, California.
20 crews and 175 firefighters from Ontario, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside took part in extinguishing the fire, which lasted more than 12 hours. Despite their efforts, the warehouse burned down completely with all its contents.
Shamel Abdulkarim, 29, from Highland, was arrested on suspicion of arson. Authorities initially believed he was a Kimberly-Clark employee, but later clarified that he worked for NFI Industries, a third-party distributor of Kimberly-Clark. The motive for the arson has not yet been established.
The burned center served about 50 million consumers, and its destruction could disrupt the market for toilet paper and other paper products in the region.