No-contest Plea in 2021 Carson Warehouse Fire

Virgin Scent and three of its executives were sentenced on July 31 after pleading no contest to criminal environmental charges tied to a 2021 warehouse fire in Carson, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said the case stemmed from the Sept. 30, 2021 blaze at the company’s warehouse, where large quantities of alcohol-based hand sanitizer had been improperly stored. They said the defendants later pumped remaining sanitizer into the municipal storm drain system, sending it to the Dominguez Channel. The defendants received two years of formal supervised probation, the district attorney’s office said. ### Who entered the no-contest pleas? Los Angeles County prosecutors identified the defendants as Virgin Scent and executives Yaakov Nourollah, Akiva Nourollah and Yehuda Nourollah. The district attorney’s office said each pleaded no contest to one felony count of disposal of hazardous materials and four misdemeanor environmental crimes. Department H of the Compton Courthouse handled the hearing in case TA157794, according to the district attorney’s office. (da.lacounty.gov) Prosecutors said the misdemeanor counts included reckless storage of hazardous materials, unlawfully depositing hazardous materials, violating the Clean Water Act and failing to report the discharge of hazardous materials after the fire. ### What did prosecutors say happened after the fire? The Sept. 30, 2021 fire broke out at Virgin Scent’s warehouse in Carson, where prosecutors said alcohol-based hand sanitizers had been stored improperly. After the blaze, the defendants pumped remaining hand sanitizer into the municipal storm drain system, the district attorney’s office said. The Dominguez Channel later became the center of a broader odor incident that drew complaints across the South Bay and nearby communities. (da.lacounty.gov) South Coast AQMD said it began receiving odor complaints on Oct. 3, 2021, and that complaints exceeded 100 a day by Oct. 6, with a high of more than 580 complaints on Oct. 11. The agency said Virgin Scent, Day to Day Imports, Liberty Properties Limited Partnership, Prologis and Los Angeles County all received notices of violation on Dec. 2, 2021. ### How large was the wider environmental case? A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge imposed more than $10 million in penalties in December 2025 against the operators of the warehouse that caught fire, the California State Water Resources Control Board said in a Dec. 29, 2025 release. The board said the case concerned pollutants and hazardous substances discharged into the Dominguez Channel Estuary after the fire. (aqmd.gov) The water board said runoff from fire debris contributed to the 2021 Dominguez Channel odor incident. Its public case page says the warehouse was located at 16325 South Avalon Boulevard in Carson and that the board issued administrative civil liability complaints on July 14, 2022, later amending them in November 2022 and March 2023. ### What other litigation has come out of the odor event? (waterboards.ca.gov) On Feb. 6, 2026, a Los Angeles jury returned an $8.8 million verdict for 24 Carson residents in a civil case over exposure to hydrogen sulfide after the 2021 fire, according to Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, which represented the plaintiffs. Daily Journal later reported that a judge denied Prologis’ bid to overturn that verdict, while continuing arguments on whether claimed jury-instruction errors could justify a new trial. (waterboards.ca.gov) The district attorney’s office did not say in its July 31 release whether the no-contest pleas would be used in any pending civil matters. Prosecutors did quote District Attorney Nathan Hochman as saying companies that handle hazardous materials have an obligation to protect communities and the environment. ### What happens next in the criminal case? (cpmlegal.com) The July 31 sentencing resolved the criminal prosecution with probation rather than jail time, according to the district attorney’s office. The defendants’ next obligations will come through the terms of that two-year supervised probation and any related compliance requirements imposed by regulators or courts in the parallel environmental matters. (da.lacounty.gov)