--- title: "Man Lights 1.2 Million Square Foot Warehouse on Fire for Not Paying Him Enough" description: "A man set a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse filled to the brim with toilet paper on fire in Ontario, California." date: "2026-04-09" modified: "2026-04-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/man-lights-warehouse-fire-not-paying-enough" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Man Lights 1.2 Million Square Foot Warehouse on Fire for Not Paying Him Enough ![A man set a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse filled to the brim with toilet paper on fire in Ontario, California.]() *Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images* Many workers' pay is effectively frozen in an unforgiving labor market that [hasn't seen any meaningful increases]() in wages in decades. Meanwhile, the cost of living — not to mention the [price of gas]() — continues to rise, making it difficult for low-income households to squeeze by. One strategy we *wouldn't* recommend is to set a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse filled to the brim with toilet paper and other highly flammable paper products on fire — which is exactly what a disgruntled employee at a paper products facility in Ontario, California did earlier this week, as the [*LA Times* reports](). The resulting fire, which started just after midnight local time on Tuesday, was enormous, requiring 175 firefighters and 15 fire trucks to put it out. And if you really, *really* can't keep yourself from watching the world burn, we do not, under any circumstances, advise you to film yourself while doing it — which is *also* what 29-year-old Highland resident Chamel Abdulkarim has now been accused of doing. https://youtu.be/l5xTO4bVfW0 The NFI Industries employee was promptly arrested in connection with the blaze after a video showing a man lighting tall stacks of toilet paper on fire went [viral]() online. "All you had to do was pay us enough to live," the man could be heard saying in the video. "There goes your inventory," the same voice says in a followup clip. "We have had reports that he did give some information on social media," Ontario Police Cpl. Emily Williams [told LA-based broadcaster *KTLA*](). "We can’t go into specifics as to what that information is." Alex Montero, who claims to have met Abdulkarim at the warehouse, said he had obtained screen recordings of the videos through a mutual friend. "It was him that posted himself doing it," Montero told the *LA Times*. "If not, I wouldn’t have put it out there like that." Abdulkarim will be appearing in court sometime today after being charged with arson. The incident struck clearly close to home for some netizens. "This shit is it," one user [wrote]() in the r/antiwork subreddit. "People are hitting their breaking points. When people see no way out of debt, no way forward to retirement or a life lived for themselves, when they have nothing to lose what else are they supposed to do?" "I think companies sometimes forget that a strike is the peaceful option but not the only one..." another user [added](). Others predicted that toilet paper could soon become difficult to come by as a result of the enormous blaze. "Guess I’ll move that bidet in my Amazon saves back into my cart," one user [wrote](). **More on the cost of living:** [*Sam Altman Says AI Will Cause Massive Deflation, Making Money Worth Vastly More*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()