Police are investigating a fire that broke out in a New Orleans mansion owned by music artists Beyoncé and JayZ, as reported by media outlets, The New Orleans Advocate and other media.
An alarm fire broke out in the vacant house in Tony Garden District Wednesday night and was quickly put out by about two dozen firefighters. Nobody was injured in the fire. According to the Ombudsman’s Office, reports were received by the police about a suspicious person who was spotted in the neighborhood shortly before the fire broke out: the investigators found books in the kitchen stove and a gasoline can in the house. City records show the home was purchased for $ 2.6 million in 2015 from a mailbox company that shares the mailing address of Parkwood Entertainment, Beyonce’s management firm, the attorney reported.
The 15,000-square-meter, three-story Spanish Baroque building was built in 1926 as a Presbyterian church, the founding pastor of which, as the head of the Ku Klux Klan, J.C. Barr, was admitted, the attorney reported. The building was later used as a ballet school.
A neighbor told the attorney that he had not seen any activity in the house in the past two years. Police and fire fighters and an agent from the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau were on hand to investigate the damage to the house Thursday, WWLTV Channel 4 reported. I did not know the house was on fire.
