This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Corson Media. This is It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison Davis. A revolution is igniting across America, at least according to viral posts on social media and TikTok videos with hundreds of thousands of views, claiming that anywhere between three to six to nine houses have been set on fire this past week for not paying their employees a living wage. The revolution might be happening. We're going to warehouse fire in Ontario, warehouse fire in New York, warehouse fire in Bakersfield, Amazon warehouse fire in Ohio. So they set a mall on fire too. It hasn't just been factories at this point. It's also malls. It seems as though people have begun to eat the rich. Workers of the world ignite. Like most instances of viral misinformation, there is a kernel of truth to this story and one worth focusing on. But through a massive game of cross-platform telephone, facts and causality get warped and misconstrued. Selective reporting of similar but unrelated events can be used to assert a connection between certain events, even if there is none. But let's start with that kernel of truth. Just after midnight on April 7th, a 29 year old warehouse worker named Shemelle Abdul-Kareem allegedly set fire to a toilet paper warehouse in Ontario, California. After multiple pallets of paper products were lit on fire, the flames overwhelmed the fire suppression system and collapsed the roof. The blaze took over 12 hours to contain and ultimately destroyed the 1.2 million square foot distribution center leased by Kimberly Clark, the company behind Kleenex, Huggies, and Cottonel toilet paper. Local officials and the Justice Department have said the fire caused over $600 million of damages. The 20 employees who were working midnight shifts the warehouse when the fire started all evacuated safely and there were no reported injuries. The day after the fire, videos uploaded to social media the night of the fire resurfaced appearing to show the suspect intentionally lighting three fires inside the distribution center while speaking aloud about low wages, corporate profits, shareholders, and poor working conditions. You know, if you're not going to pay us enough to f***ing live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this. All you had to do was pay us enough to live. All you had to do was pay us enough to f***ing live. There goes your inventory. The affidavit filed with the criminal complaint alleges that Abdul Karim filmed himself setting fire to multiple pallets of paper goods inside the warehouse. And as he lit the fires, he stated, quote, if you're not going to pay us enough to f***ing live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this shit. Unquote. Beyond the short videos Abdul Karim posted to his social media, the affidavit alleges he made further statements to friends and coworkers on the phone and via text message related to his motive for setting the fires. He allegedly texted, quote, I just cost these expletive billions. And wrote that the quote, 1% is an expletive joke. U.S. Attorney Bill Assele said in a press conference that after setting the fire, quote, in a phone call to one witness, Abdul Karim compared himself to Luigi Mangione. Unquote. Abdul Karim also allegedly texted, quote, all you had to do was pay us enough to live, pay us more of the value we bring, not corporate. Don't see the shareholders picking up a shift. Unquote. This past Monday Abdul Karim pleaded not guilty to arson charges in court. Though the warehouse stored Kimberley clerk products, Abdul Karim was actually employed by NFI Industries, a third party distribution company. NFI Industries is a family owned private company and does not report its profits. But last year said they generated more than 3.7 billion in annual revenue and had over 18,000 employees. The average executive at the company has a $235,000 salary with the highest paid making $700,000 annually. Meanwhile, the average pay of an NFI Industries warehouse worker in California per job listing sites is $18.74 an hour with forklift operators and warehouse specialists making $22.39 an hour. The median household income in Ontario, California is $82,806 a year and the average salary is over $73,000 a year or $35.00 hourly. Ontario, California has a 28% higher cost of living than the national average. Last year, Kimberley clerk made $2.4 billion in operating profit. The footage of this worker allegedly lighting the warehouse on fire went super viral on tiktok with millions and millions of views sparking meme edits and hype videos. Then in the days after the toilet paper fire, footage of other warehouse fires started to spread around tiktok, leading some people to believe that copycat incidents might be taking place across the country. Here's a clip with over 300,000 views of a left wing tiktok influencer claiming that since the toilet paper arson, more people have begun setting their workplaces on fire. So apparently that guy that burns down the toilet paper warehouse because they were not paying him a living wage or anyone living wage for that matter. Who the internet has dubbed wall luigi for warehouse luigi was not the only one with that idea or to execute on it. And I will say I am not 100% sure on the timelines of all of these. Oh, you're not 100% sure? Well, then that's that's fine. Continue anyway. This guy goes on to say that since wall luigi, he's seen quote four to five to six other warehouses that have quote burned down or at least been set on fire unquote. A lot of this social media reporting does not differentiate between a warehouse completely burning down and a small fire that is quickly put out. Neither do these social media reports provide evidence to the cause of these fires. One of the most circulated videos of one of these other fires is from Queens at 7 30 p.m. on Friday night. Someone reported smoke at an industrial complex in college point Queens firefighters soon responded to a rapidly growing fire inside a lumber yard warehouse after the building was searched and no one was found inside 300 firefighters worked all night to contain the blaze to the 64,000 square foot warehouse. The lumberyard did burn down but no injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. But a post on X the everything app with almost a million quote unquote views read quote another disgruntled employee strikes at the heart of American capital. That tick tock influencer I've already mentioned was very excited to share news of an Amazon warehouse on fire. Despite not being quite sure of the details or how many warehouses were actually on fire. At least one of which I am beyond happy to announce was an Amazon warehouse which is not to say more than one more than affected. I've seen multiple videos of an Amazon warehouse on fire. I'm just not sure if it was multiple Amazon warehouses on fire or just multiple people recording the same Amazon warehouse that was on fire. Either way, either way, bottom line, people are setting Amazon warehouses on fire. There is no evidence anyone set this Amazon warehouse on fire and yes it is just one warehouse not multiple. On April 8th firefighters responded to a fire at an Amazon warehouse in West Jefferson, Ohio. The fulfillment center was evacuated as smoke billowed from the roof of the warehouse. The fire was extinguished quickly and caused quote unquote minimal damage to the underside of the roof according to Jefferson Township Fire Chief Dan Gatley. There is no evidence that this fire was intentionally set by an employee or by anyone and was possibly caused by a simple solar panel malfunction. Investigators believe 75 to 100 solar panels on the roof of the warehouse caught fire which burnt through quote just a little bit of the rubber membrane on the roofing and some of the insulation on quote according to Fire Chief Gatley. This insulation fell onto two racks of Amazon products but Gatley estimated that more damage was caused by the water used to put out the solar panel fire then from the smoke or the fire itself. The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation. A post on X the everything app with 1.1 million quote unquote views and 27,000 likes shared video of smoke billowing from the roof of the Amazon warehouse and was captioned this is beginning to feel like something of a movement. Another post from a monetized blue check account with 1 million quote unquote views and 26,000 likes also shared footage of the Amazon fire with the caption another warehouse fire this time in Amazon fulfillment center in West Jefferson, Ohio warehouse employees across the country are using their unique position to attack the substructure and base of the Epstein class unquote. We'll return to talk more about these fires after this ad break. 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I was tagged in this. This happened, I think perhaps today. I'm going to pause right here because next she includes a severe weather alert warning for risk of fire spreading in the Northeast as if wildfires and this weather alert was somehow related to warehouse fires on the other side of the country. And I haven't been able to find any news about it online yet, but there's this special weather statement, moderate for a fire spread in Pennsylvania right now. So that's four, five right here where somebody said a jeans store was set in fire in California. Again, I can't corroborate these things right now. These are just comments. And somebody also said New Jersey for another warehouse fire. So that is literally California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. I'm getting comments and reports in right now that there have been five different warehouse or storefront fires in the last three days. This shit is fucking wild. Holy shit. Six. I think that's six because it's two in California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And again, I'm trying to find these items online right now, but like I don't think the news cycle has caught up fast enough to it. So like who class war 2026. This person describes herself on Tik Tok as a quote unquote guerrilla journalist. And that video got almost half a million views on Tik Tok and 74,000 likes by baselessly claiming that a string of fires that may or may not even be real are actually intentional arsons in an escalating class war. Hashtag eat the rich. Let's go over some of the details of a few of the fires that she and others have mentioned. In New Jersey, there were actually three fires this past week, one at a chemical plant, one at a battery warehouse and a wildfire, which sent smoke into Pennsylvania. On Thursday, April 9th, a three alarm fire spread through a chemical warehouse in Newark, New Jersey. Over a hundred firefighters brought the fire under control that afternoon. No employees were harmed and the cause is under investigation. On the morning of April 13th, there was another three alarm warehouse fire in Raway, New Jersey. While searching the structure, firefighters discovered the blaze emerged from pallets of lithium ion batteries. The exact cause of the fire still remains under investigation. And this past weekend, a wildfire spread through south New Jersey, burning up to 160 acres and sending smoke into Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service warned beforehand that there was an elevated risk of wildfires last Saturday due to low humidity and 25 mile per hour wind gusts. On the afternoon of Friday, April 10th, firefighters responded to a commercial structure fire at a trash disposal business near Atlanta, Georgia. The blaze stemmed from a garbage fire in the warehouse that grew out of control when adult was sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Per a Guinec County news release, quote, the incident presented several operational challenges, including a downed power line, a deep seated fire within large debris piles, structural components exposed to prolonged heat, and nearby hazards involving liquid petroleum gas tanks and a diesel fuel reservoir, unquote. Firefighters brought this fire under control in less than four hours. According to employees, the fire originated from a small trash fire near the edge of the warehouse. Workers attempted to remove the burning debris before the fire rapidly intensified and spread to the structure. The fire was ruled accidental and department spokesperson, Lieutenant Jessica Joyner, said that it appears to have been caused by trash piled in an unsafe manner, which can combust when mixed together at such garbage facilities. But two days later, a viral post read, quote, Atlanta, Queens, Bakersfield, Ontario, I'm starting to lose track. Many people are saying only living wages can prevent warehouse fires. Speaking of Bakersfield, a quote unquote, communist Twitter account quote tweeted a video of a warehouse fire in Bakersfield, California from a monetized news aggregator account and got 21,000 likes by writing, let it be a pattern. Another account shared a different video ripped from TikTok captioned, it's almost like electing billionaires was a bad idea. A socialist branded monetized account posted another angle of the Bakersfield fire, getting 14,000 likes with the caption, is a rebellion actually brewing in the Imperial Corps? On the afternoon of April 11th, firefighters responded to a fire at a 30,000 square foot warehouse in East Bakersfield. The Kern County Fire Department said this is the third time buildings at this warehouse complex have caught on fire in the past few years, with similar fires in November of 2024 and January 2025. The cause of this new fire is still unknown and under investigation, but we know it was definitely not caused by warehouse employees, because this is an abandoned warehouse. The previous owner of the buildings told local news that the fires have been started by quote unquote, vagrants. A massive fire engulfed another lumberyard last Saturday night in Wayne County, Ohio. It took 24 fire departments across three counties working together to extinguish the flames. This lumberyard was home to a wooden pallet manufacturing business. On Sunday afternoon, the owners of the pallet manufacturing plant said in a statement, quote, we are grateful no one was injured and that the fire was contained. We are working with investigators to determine the cause and with our insurance carrier to begin recovery. Southwood pallet has served this community for 42 years, and we intend to rebuild and be stronger than ever, unquote. Footage of this fire racked up over half a million, quote unquote, views on a socialist branded monetized ex account captioned. Now there is a five alarm fire at a lumber pallet warehouse in Wayne County, Ohio. There are too many fires to be a coincidence. The working class has had it and quote tweets of the video got tens of thousands of likes with users writing quote, love to see people finally standing up against their employers eight in a week and no more thoughts and prayers only fire, unquote. Here's another video with over 300,000 views from that tick tock guerrilla journalist going through a few more of these warehouse fires that I've mentioned. Based on all of my comments and my research online based on what people are telling me and from what I can see, the ones that I can corroborate right now was that last one was Ohio in a lumber yard and then we had the Ohio Amazon, which was apparently due to the solar panels, we'll say, and then we have one in the Queens, New York one, which was lumber as well. New Jersey was a chemical warehouse. Georgia was a commercial structure. And then lastly, the one that you all been tagging me in is the California Jean store, which spread throughout the mall from what I can hear and have seen online. So that is a total of seven since our original Luigi man set fire to the toilet paper facility, that one. So that's where we are right now, a total of seven in about three, four days of warehouse storefront fires throughout the United States. Now, we don't know about all of them, but these are the ones that are that are on the radar right now. So if there's more out there, let me know, but we're up to seven now. Out of all the fires that she's talked about, the only one that we know is arson besides the toilet paper warehouse is this fire at a mall in the same city in California, where a man who does not work at the mall, allegedly lit multiple fires across several stores. The mall reopened later that same day. And authorities have said there's no connection to the warehouse fire, though the investigation is still ongoing. Before I discuss what's actually happening with all these warehouse fires, let's go on one more. At break. All right, we are back. So what's really going on with all these warehouse fires as all this reporting just a coincidence. Are these fires really labor related? Are these all disgruntled employees? Is there even more fires happening than usual? All good questions. Even if the exact cause of most of these fires hasn't yet been determined, it does seem from watching all these videos that there's been an increase of warehouse fires since the first toilet paper in Furno, though, just because you're more aware of warehouse fires happening across the country, doesn't mean that these fires are actually happening at a higher rate. A report from the National Fire Protection Association found that from 2020 to 2024 an estimated one thousand five hundred and forty four warehouse fires occur every year. That's an average of four fires per day. Warehouses are home to a lot of high heat equipment and materials that are easily combustible like lumber, paper products, batteries and chemicals. The recent National Fire Protection Association report found that most warehouse structure fires had an unintentional cause, twenty nine percent. Ten percent were caused by failure of equipment or a heat source and intentional fires accounted for just seven percent of warehouse fires. Operating equipment was the leading heat source in warehouse fires responsible for forty three percent and shop tools and industrial equipment were involved in the ignition of nineteen percent of warehouse fires. Misuse of material or product and electrical failure are the leading factors contributing to ignition. Improper storage of flammable materials and human error are also contributing factors. Intentionally set fires or arson does happen, but it's not the most common cause of modern warehouse fires. And again, warehouse structure fires happen four times a day on average. So not only is there no proof that underpaid employees have begun a spree of lighting fire to their workplace, but there hasn't even been a recent increase in warehouse fires. On Monday afternoon, footage spread online of another warehouse fire outside Miami with the caption, living wages prevent warehouse fires. But this fire actually took place over a month ago on March 5th, 2026 at an inventory storage warehouse. An employee told NBC Miami, quote, apparently there was a short circuit and a spark fell on one of the carpets we have. And that's how the fire started. We tried to put it out, but it happened too fast, unquote. Officials have not yet confirmed those details and the exact cause the fire is still under investigation. But it is literally impossible for this fire to in any way be related to the toilet paper warehouse, because it happened a month prior. And the footage is just circulating now to boost social media engagement. The video of the employee allegedly setting fire to pallets of toilet paper channeled such a strong feeling across American workers that people invented and circulated a whole fake news cycle about a string of copycat incidents. That TikTok clip demonstrates why people are so primed to share these fire spree claims and memes of Smokey the Bear saying only living wages can prevent warehouse fires. This whole warehouse fire social media news cycle is an instance of selective reporting, which happens when there is a big national news story, like someone filming themselves burning down a 1.2 million square foot warehouse. And then that causes people to share what they believe are related stories, often from local news reporting, even if the connection is minor or tangential at best. A local report from Wayne County, Ohio, or nearly would not circulate as national news, but on social media, a relatively unremarkable lumberyard fire can become part of a new increasing trend. Sometimes local news agencies themselves may be incentivized to cover smaller stories in a certain way to ride the coattails of a national story that shares a few similar details. Or national news outlets fishing for clicks made themselves cover what would typically only be a local story if it relates to a currently viral topic. A post on X the Everything app with 1.4 million quote unquote views and 67,000 likes read quote we're up to six warehouses set on fire now across the country. And I feel like it's being severely under reported on quote. If anything, these fires are being over reported. Another example of selective reporting is aviation accidents, where in the weeks after a high profile commercial airline crash, local news reports will spread around social media about even more plane crashes. Even if these are mostly small private planes which get into accidents semi regularly, I'll up Harrison Ford, or minor runway incidents that usually don't make the news. A 2025 poll from data for progress showed 72% of likely voters believed plane crashes were becoming more frequent. A CNN report analyzing national transportation safety board data from January 2024 to March 2025 found that out of 1208 flight safety incidents, only 60 incidents involved commercial carriers. Some of these incidents included turbulence or incursions. That's unauthorized aircraft vehicles or pedestrians on the runway. Half of these 60 incidents resulted in injuries and two involved fatalities, the helicopter collision in Washington DC and a plane crash in Alaska. While those fatal tragedies and other high profile incidents like the runway flip in Toronto and the door flying off an Alaska Airlines plane mid flight have so fear in the general public. Statistically, air travel is not getting more dangerous. The number of yearly safety incidents have remained mostly steady the past decade and only dropped around the pandemic due to a decrease in total air travel. In fact, on average, flying has only gotten safer. Even including private and recreational flights, the average number of annual deadly incidents has fallen by more than half since 2000, excluding 9-11. Despite viral news clips of near misses on the runway and an air traffic controller shortage, those runway incursions have also steadily dropped in recent years. But such data can be hard to stomach if in the days after a high profile aviation incident, you keep seeing more reports about plane crashes all across the country. But that itself is selective reporting on average three to four planes crash every day. And these are typically small private planes, not commercial airliners. And typically a small Cessna crashing in Kentucky doesn't make national news. The same thing is happening with these warehouse fires. Lefty TikTok influencers and many others participating in this warehouse fire meme are ascribing the motive of one person onto a collection of unrelated incidents, trying to create a pattern when there probably isn't one. Saw that this one guy said that he did it because of his anger towards capitalism. And I don't know if that was the original toilet paper guy or another one of these warehouse fires. But to each and every one of them, period, keep it up. Again, out of all the incidents I mentioned, the only two we know were intentional was the toilet paper warehouse and the Ontario Mall. And the only one we have a suspected motive for is the toilet paper warehouse. An Emerson College poll found that 41% of young voters thought the actions of the United Healthcare Assassin were acceptable. Another 19% said that they were neutral on the question. Luigi Mangione memes and reactions to this toilet paper fire do demonstrate a form of class consciousness. This same week, people have cheered the attacks on the home of open AI CEO Sam Altman. Even if influencers are just trying to make a profit, there is an act of willingness among the consumers sharing memes and this living wage warehouse fire content to rally behind such action. The working conditions at these warehouses can be inhumane. Just last week, a 47-year-old worker at an Amazon warehouse in Troutdale, Oregon collapsed and died. Supervisors prevented someone with CPR training to assist with chest compressions and instructed employees to continue work as usual as the body laid still on the floor. Oregon OSHA has said the death was not work-related. In a catastrophic vibe shift, let's go back to our left-wing TikTok influencer for his analysis. I really hope this is a sign of... of what we all hope it's a sign of. I can't be the only one who has felt like the tides are turning, the tables are turning, the winds are shifting. It really feels like there's actual movement being made in just the last few days. And now all these warehouse fires, which sure could be a coincidence, but I don't think so. At least I hope not. But what do you guys think? Comment below. And if this really is truly the beginning of it all ending, give me a follow for more like this. Everyone knows the most important thing to do when the revolution starts is to give me a follow. Speaking of, there is just two days left of webby voting for It Could Happen Here, behind the bastards and migrating to America. And we may need a supermajority to beat the MS Now filibuster, so go make your voices heard before voting ends on April 16th. That does it for me today at It Could Happen Here. See you on the other side. It Could Happen Here is a production of CoolZone Media. For more podcasts from CoolZone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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