The animal shelter has history with TWICE and Lee Hyori.

An animal shelter located in Anseong caught on fire late at night around 2am. It took about 3 hours to control the fire, leading to a death toll of 180 dogs and 80 cats. Although no human victims have been reported, the 260 pets were caught in cages and unable to escape.

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The animal shelter had been sheltering about 400 dogs and 100 cats in total, meaning over half of the animals died from the fire.

The animal shelter is best known to have been where singer Lee Hyori met and adopted her famous dog, Soonshim, back in 2011.

TWICE‘s Jeongyeon, Momo and Jeongyeon’s older sister Gong Seung Yeon also visited just last year to volunteer in helping clean, feed and play with the animals. Other famous stars, such as BEAST, CNBLUE and more have also continuously donated to the shelter.

The police and fire departments are investigating the exact cause of the fire. So far, they believe it was caused by an electrical short circuit.

The animals that have survived the fire have been transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.