Aren't there regulations regarding this...........

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities must run a fine line with respect to patient smoking at their facilities. One one hand, they must allow patients to smoke.

In addition, facilities must create and implement a smoking policy that protect both the individual smoker and the other patients at the facility. This usually means a designated smoking area and staff supervision.

In your mother's case, it sounds as though the facility was negligent with respect to allowing your mother to smoke in her room and failing to secure smoking materials such as matches and cigarette lighters.

Certainly, this sounds like a situation that should have been prevented.