The fact that the ignition was left on with the points closed should have not caused all of your wires to burn. It will discharge a battery in a hurry, but I think you had other problems. I made a lot of service calls 50 years ago to people who had left their ignition on and the battery was dead It didn't do the points and coil any good, but that was about the extent of it. If a regulator sticks, it will burn wires. You still have a circuit with the battery and the generator tries to "motor" and of course can't. This will cause wires to burn.
