Arson

April 7 (UPI) — Fire ripped through a Kimberly-Clark paper goods warehouse early Tuesday in Ontario, Calif., spewing smoke and ash into the sky in a tremendous black plume.

The blaze was first reported about 1:45 a.m., and responders from the Ontario Fire Department found heavy smoke and fire when arriving. More than 100 emergency personnel from that and at least four other departments worked to contain the fire into the day.

Officials said about 20 people were at the 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse when the fire broke out; there were no initial reports of injuries.

The fire department warned area residents, especially seniors and children, of poor air quality connected with heavy smoke and ash from the blaze and advised people to remain inside.

Ontario Deputy Fire Chief Mike Wedell told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that the fire department identified the blaze as “suspicious in nature.” Police were questioning a warehouse employee in connection with the fire.

A Kimberly-Clark representative told KCBS-TV in Los Angeles that a third-party partner operated the warehouse and that the company was working with that partner and local authorities. Kimberly-Clark, based in Irving, Texas, manufactures mostly paper products, including brands such as Cottonelle, Scott, Huggies and Kleenex.

April 4 (UPI) — A fourth man suspected of being involved in an attack on a Jewish volunteer ambulance service was arrested when he attended a hearing for three of his alleged accomplices.

On March 26, four ambulances that belong to a Jewish community organization were torched in the Golders Green area of North London in an attack that police said was aimed at terrorizing the Jewish community there.

Police on Saturday arrested a fourth suspect in the attack during a hearing for three people — two British citizens, Hamza Iqbal, 20, and Rehan Khan, 19, as well as a 17-year-old with dual British-Pakistani citizenship — who had already been charged in the crime, The BBC reported.

Officers, who already were aware that four people were responsible for the arson, recognized a 19-year-old man who was suspected of participating and arrested him at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Golders Green has a large Jewish population and the four people are suspected for being responsible for oxygen cylinders in four ambulances parked outside a synagogue there that exploded on March 23, The New York Times reported.

All four were arrested, although the 19-year-old arrested while entering the courthouse has not formally been charged, while the other three face an April 24 court date.

Two other men also had been arrested and released on bail, but also will be expected in court in April.

The four ambulances were operated by Hatzolah, an organization that was started in 1973 in New York by a group of Orthodox Jews trained in First Aid and CPR looking to assist their local community, according to the group’s website.

Court records show well over $1 million in damage in what prosecutors called a “premeditated and targeted attack against the Jewish community.”

Since its founding, volunteer ambulance groups associated with the organization have been established across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, South Africa and Australia, among other places.

Violence against Jewish people and organizations has increased over the course of the past year globally, including in London.

The Metropolitan Police said it has deployed “highly visible armed police patrols” to areas with larger Jewish populations because of a series of fires and attacks across Europe and the United States that have been blamed on doing business with Jewish people.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said at the beginning of the week that a claim of responsibility by a group with links to Iran was being investigated but stopped short of officially placing blame.

“Whoever was responsible, the impact is serious,” Rowley said.

Run by volunteers, it has served the north London community of Golders Green, which has a large Jewish population, since 1979. There are dozens of synagogues throughout the area and according to the London Data Store, 49% of residents in the Golders Green ward identify as Jewish.