"Suspicious" Fire Guts 50 Cent's New York Mansion

05/30/08 4:30pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

"Fire" isn't just one of 50 Cent's songs anymore. An inferno burned the rapper's mansion to the ground early on Friday morning.

Fire officials received a 5 a.m. call about a blaze at the rapper's $2.4 million U.S. Long Island, N.Y. mansion. Although it was put out 45 minutes later, it took firefighters from five different departments to do it. 50 Cent's ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and her two sons — one of whom is her child with the rapper — and four other people had been inside when the fire broke out. All six were sent to hospital for smoke inhalation. An arson squad has been called in to investigate. 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) isn't considered a suspect.

"I would say there is a strong possibility that it is suspicious because of the rapid movement of the fire, the volume of the fire that we had upon arrival and the intensity," Dix Hills Fire Department chief Larry Feld told MTV News, adding the home had been gutted when he arrived on the scene shortly after the call. "Let's put it this way, this wasn't your ordinary fire."

Tompkins lived in the mansion, but 50 Cent didn't. He'd been trying to evict her because she wouldn't pay him $4,500 in monthly rent. Tompkins sued 50 Cent in response, claiming he had promised to transfer all or some of the home to her name.

"Everything that's his is hers, everything that's hers is his," Tompkins' lawyer Paul Catsandonis told Associated Press. "He memorialized in an email that he intended to give her the house."

Castandonis said the dispute had become "extremely, extremely contentious" over the last few days. Ironically, 50 Cent bought the house because he said he wanted Tompkins and her children to be safe.

Earlier this week, one of 50 Cent's employees was arrested for assaulting a 22-year-old woman with a belt at Fiddy's mansion. Dwayne McKenzie, 27, has been charged with assault, strangulation, breach of peace and unlawful restraint.