UPDATE: 50 Cent has issued a statement about the fire that demolished the Long Island home of his baby mama and their 10-year-old son earlier this morning.
"Informed this morning while filming a new motion picture on location in Louisiana, Curtis Jackson expressed deep concern over this fire at his property," his rep said. "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."
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The roof—along with the rest of Fiddy's palatial Long Island house—was on fire.
The rapper's former girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins and two of her children, including her son with the rapper, were among a half-dozen people hospitalized this morning after a raging blaze gutted the home. All six are in stable condition after being treated for smoke inhalation.
Authorities are already describing the fire, which was reported today at 5 a.m., as "suspicious" due to the intensity of the blaze, and an arson investigation squad has been called to the sooty scene to sniff out any potential materials used to jump-start the flames.
"I would say there is a strong—a strong, strong—possibility that it is suspicious," Dix Hills Fire Department Chief Larry Feld told Newsday. "The volume of the fire...It was engulfed."
Engulfed in flames as well as litigation.
Fiddy purchased the home in January 2007 for $1.4 million and last month attempted to evict Tompkins unless she ponied up $4,500 per month in rent. Tompkins, in turn, filed a breach of contract suit against the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, claiming he had promised to put the house in her name.
The fire also took place just days after a deposition with the twosome turned heated and spilled out onto the streets of Manhattan.
While the cause of the fire is currently under investigation, the rapper is not a suspect.
(Originally published on May 30, 2008 at 9:09 a.m. PT)