GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — An extravagant Long Island home belonging to rap star 50 Cent was destroyed Friday in what officials are calling a suspicious fire, The Associated Press reports.
Six people who were inside the multimillion-dollar home, including 50 Cent's former girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and his 10-year-old son Marquise, were treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation and released. They had been trapped on the second floor of the home and were forced to jump down from the roof, where they were caught by an off-duty police officer who was passing through at the time.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. and was under control within 45 minutes, AP says.
The home is currently a contentious topic between the Grammy-winning artist and Tompkins, who filed a lawsuit against the rapper earlier this year, alleging that he promised the home (valued at $2.4 million) to her more than a decade ago.
Paul Catsandonis, an attorney representing Tompkins in the dispute, said discussions about the property had become "extremely, extremely contentious" in recent days, according to AP.
One of the first firefighters on the scene said the fire was definitely suspicious.
"I would say there is a strong — a strong, strong — possibility that it is suspicious," Dix Hills Fire Department Chief Larry Feld told Newsday.
When asked why, he told Newsday: "The rapid movement of the fire. The volume of the fire ... It was engulfed. The home was totally gutted."
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, was on location shooting a film in Louisiana at the time of the blaze.
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