An early morning fire turned the house of an elderly animal lover into a furnace, killing roughly 150 stray cats she had looked after over the years, Beijing local media reported Saturday.

The cats died of suffocation or burns Friday morning as they had no way of escaping the burning courtyard residence of 84-year-old Ding Shiying in downtown Beijing, according to the Beijing Morning Post.

A neighbor said she heard Ding scream for help and called the fire department. Firemen put out the blaze before it spread to Ding's bedroom, which housed another 30 dogs and 50 cats. Ding said she now hoped other animal lovers could adopt them, the paper said.

Ding, fondly called Granny Ding, started to adopt stray cats in the early 1980s but recently has struggled to look after them due to the large number of animals and that her health has deteriorated since she turned 80.