Neighbors and the daughter of a Riverside woman whose home caught fire were astounded Wednesday that 25 small dogs died inside with badly matted coats and long, curling toenails.

Some of the Maltese were former show dogs and had been the pride and joy of their owner, Frances Glionna, said her daughter, Melissa Breden. But that was before Glionna's mother died, Breden said.

Since then, Glionna, 57, had coped with her loss by collecting and fixing things, even though she had no place to put them, said her son-in-law, Brian Breden, of Rialto.

"It's real sad," he said as he looked over the yard filled with the contents of the house in the 1800 block of Missouri Street.

"Her dogs were everything," Melissa Breden said. "Before my grandma died, she showed them every weekend."

Fourteen dogs were found in cages in a front bedroom Tuesday night. Eleven more were found Wednesday in a corner of another room, Riverside Fire Department Battalion Chief John Dredla said. He said they appeared to have died of smoke inhalation.

The dogs were identified Tuesday night by Riverside County Animal Control as Lhasa Apsos, but Melissa Breden said Wednesday they were Maltese, a similar-looking breed.

Breden, 33, said her mother had gone to Escondido to visit her son Tuesday and was still there Wednesday.

The fire broke out about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday. It started in an exhaust fan in a back bathroom, Dredla said.

After firefighters spent almost five hours at the 1,100-square-foot home Tuesday night, the flames flared up again at 4:17 a.m. Wednesday, burning from the attic into the living area and bedrooms, fire Division Chief John Martinez said. Firefighters spent about seven more hours at the house Wednesday morning.

The clutter in the home made it difficult for firefighters to move around Tuesday night, he said.

"It gives fire an opportunity to hide and smolder," Martinez said.

He estimated the damage was about $90,000 to the house and $30,000 to the contents, plus the dogs.

Necropsies will be performed on some of the small dogs, said John Welsh, public information chief of Animal Control.

"We did not remove one live dog from the house," he said.

Although Riverside doesn't limit the number of dogs residents can keep and the tiny animals probably didn't need a lot of exercise, they appeared to have been neglected, Welsh said.

Their long fur was badly matted and some of their toenails were so long they curled back into their feet, he said. It appeared the dogs hadn't been groomed or exercised in a long time, Welsh said. He said authorities are considering whether to seek charges against Glionna.

Glionna's focus changed about six years ago from her show dogs to caring for her mother, taking her for dialysis treatments every day. She became depressed after her mother suddenly died in her arms about five years ago, Melissa Breden said.

She coped by picking up things people had thrown away but that she could fix, Melissa and Brian Breden said.

Melissa Breden said her mother "finally said 'I need this stuff out of here,' " and Brian Breden started hauling truckloads from his mother-in-law's backyard to the dump within the past year.

"I didn't know she had that many dogs," Melissa Breden said. "She wouldn't even let us in the house. She was ashamed of it."

Reach Dayna Straehley at 951-368-9455 or dstraehley@PE.com

From: http://www.pe.com