A raging blaze one fire official called "definitely suspicious" torched a Dix Hills home at the center of a legal dispute involving rapper 50 Cent and his ex-girlfriend.
Shaniqua Tompkins, the ex-girlfriend living in the home at 2 Sandra Dr. owned by 50 Cent, was among the six people treated for smoke inhalation. Among the victim's was their son, Marquise, 11.
In tears outside the gutted house Friday afternoon, Tompkins said she was positive the fire was deliberately set.
"Someone threw something in the window and set the house on fire," she said. She blamed 50 Cent, the Grammy-winning rapper.
"He's trying to kill me and his own child," she said. "I know without a doubt in my heart it was him."
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, last month tried to evict Tompkins and their son from the home unless she paid him $4,500 a month in rent. He bought the home in January 2007 for a reported $1.4 million.
In turn, Tompkins filed a lawsuit against Jackson in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, claiming "breach of contract" and charging that the rapper had promised to put all or part of the house in her name.
50 Cent's lawyer, Brett Kimmel, released the following statement to the web site TMZ: "Any suggestion that Mr. Jackson had anything whatsoever to do with the fire at his home is outrageous and offensive."
Suffolk police stressed that the investigation is still in the preliminary stages and that they had not determined if the fire was deliberately set.
"His name has come up by one of the witnesses, but he is currently in Louisiana, from what we understand," said Det. Sgt. Edward Fitzgerald.
Asked if police had spoken with him, Fitzgerald said, "We have not. At this point, we don't have a way to contact him."
A statement on behalf of Jackson, 32, said he was informed of the fire while filming a movie on location in Louisiana.
The statement said: "Curtis Jackson expressed deep concern over this fire at his property. He is extremely thankful that everyone including his son, Marquise, escaped the burning house safely. He is confident that authorities will be conducting a thorough investigation of the incident and is eager to review their findings."
In addition to Tompkins and Marquise, Tompkins' two other children, her aunt and aunt's child were in the house at the time of the fire. They were all treated at Huntington Hospital and later released.
At the hospital, Tompkins said she was in an upstairs bedroom when she said she heard something crash through a window downstairs -- and she scrambled to wake everyone and get them all out of the burning house.
Douglas Bose, an off-duty Suffolk police officer who was passing by at the time, came to the rescue. He called 911 and went to the rear of the house, where the occupants were trapped on the second floor. Police said he instructed all six people to exit through a window and come out on to the roof. They each jumped down, and he was able to catch them.
Bose, a 22-year veteran of the police department, said he was simply "in the right place at the right time."
One of the first firefighters to arrive on the scene told Newsday the fire was suspicious.
"I would say there is a strong -- a strong, strong -- possibility that it is suspicious," Dix Hills Fire Department Chief Larry Feld said.
Asked why he believed the fire was suspicious, Feld told Newsday: "The rapid movement of the fire. The volume of the fire . . . It was engulfed. The home was totally gutted."
Contacted early Friday, the attorney representing Tompkins, Paul Catsandonis, said he had not heard about the fire. He declined to comment.
The fire was reported at 5 a.m., according to Suffolk police and fire officials. Firefighters from Dix Hills, Deer Park, Greenlawn, Commack and Melville responded to the blaze.
"The fire was huge, I mean huge," next-door neighbor Debra Lotz said. "I watched the whole fire from our pool . . . It burned down to the ground." The fire caused officials to close down nearby Route 231 at Vanderbilt Parkway.
Investigators from the Suffolk County Arson Squad and the Suffolk Fire Marshal's office were investigating the scene.
In April, Catsandonis told Newsday that Tompkins and her son had until May 1 to live in the house. He said that the rapper had said "if we give him one month's rent, he will allow them to stay until the end of the school year."
The home is located on one acre and has six bedrooms, five baths, a heated four-car garage and a pool. Last month, Catsandonis told Newsday that the rapper, who was shot outside his grandmother's Queens home in 2000, told Tompkins he wanted her and their son in a safe and secure location.
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