Fire rages at the Sandra Drive home owned by rapper 50 Cent Friday morning. (Photo by Steve Silverman / May 30, 2008)

A raging fire that one fire official called "definitely suspicious" gutted a Dix Hills home owned by the Grammy-nominated rapper 50 Cent Friday morning, sending six people inside the house to the hospital.

An eyewitness told Newsday that among the injured, all of whom suffered smoke inhalation according to fire officials, were 50 Cent's ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and their 10-year-old son, Marquise.

"She was all right," eyewitness Frank Hoyte, a Newsday employee, said, adding: "But she was angry."

He said Tompkins was standing outside the home barefoot as it burned, wearing a bathrobe. Two young boys, one of them Marquise, two teenage girls and "an older woman" were also standing with Tompkins, Hoyte said.

 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."

The home at 2 Sandra Drive, purchased by the rapper in January 2007 for a reported $1.4 million, is one of the largest in Dix Hills -- and has been at the center of a lawsuit between 50 Cent and Tompkins. The 32-year-old rapper, 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.

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.

"I have always had a hand in fashion in some capacity [as the face of brands such as Kangol and Fubu], but I have never embraced a brand the way I will embrace this," LL Cool J told WWD.com. "The LL Cool J name is a brand I have been building for 25 years and I didn't want to do this line with just any store. I wanted to wait until I felt comfortable enough to take the leap."

Sears will launch a nationwide television and print campaign to market LL Cool J for Sears.

LL, born James Told Smith, will be featured in the commercials with his wife Simone, his son Najee and his two daughters, Samaria and Nina.

He will also hold in-store contests where fans can when a chance to go to the studio or be on the set of a video with the rapper. LL Cool J for Sears will be priced from $22-$50 dollars.

In related news, Exit 13, the rapper‘s 13th and final album for Def Jam, is due in stores on July 18.

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