(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

An electrical spark from a surgical tool sets off a fire in the breathing tube of a young tonsillectomy patient. A hot particle from a bassinet warmer ignites flames that burn a newborn baby. A nicotine patch on a patient undergoing an MRI scan becomes so hot the patient is burned and the test halted.

Such horror stories, though rare, are raising concerns about the risks of burn injuries to patients. Patient-safety groups and medical specialty organizations are stepping up efforts to raise awareness of risks and provide guidelines for prevention. Hospitals are conducting operating-room fire drills that teach how to fight fires that break out on the drapes, gowns or skin of surgical patients and extinguish flames inside a patient's airway or tracheal tube. They're also developing training programs to educate staffers on the dangers of burns from medical equipment and procedures.

While there is no national database of hospital fires and burn incidents, data from studies conducted in Pennsylvania indicate there are 650 surgical fires in hospitals annually in the U.S. -- and there may be three to four times as many "near miss" incidents, such as a surgical drape that begins smoldering and was extinguished quickly, says John Clarke, a trauma surgeon and clinical director of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System. While a surgical fire is a relatively minor risk compared to infection, the fact that fire is "preventable and can have such serious repercussions for patients elevates its priority", Dr. Clarke says.

In the operating room, high-tech electrosurgical tools and an oxygen-rich atmosphere pose a risk of fire. ECRI

At outpatient surgery centers, where a growing number of procedures take place, a new federal law that goes into effect this year will require centers to submit data on a number of quality and safety measures or face a 2% reduction in Medicare payments. The standards-setting group National Quality Forum has identified burn prevention as one of the top-five safety measures for surgery centers, citing scalds, fire, chemical burns, and electrical or radiation burns caused by warming devices, prep solutions, electrosurgical tools and lasers.

Operating rooms are a special concern because high-tech electrosurgical tools and an oxygen-rich atmosphere can create a combustible mix. ECRI, a nonprofit group that conducts patient-safety research, says that in addition to surgical fires, other potential sources of burns include the magnets, coils and sensors used in MRI machines, IV solution bags that are overheated, fiber-optic lighting, and even blankets warmed in heating cabinets, whose internal folds may reach high temperatures that a nurse may not feel as the blanket is spread over an anesthetized patient. One analysis of closed malpractice claims by the American Society of Anesthesiologists shows that of 145 claims for burn injuries, more than half were from devices intended to warm the patient, while 31% were from electrical tools used for cauterization.

ECRI earlier this month recommended the removal of a series of infant warmers after an investigation showed that a baby caught fire in a bassinet at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minn., most likely because a hot particle fell from the warmer's assembly into the area near the baby's head where oxygen was being delivered. Though nurses quickly extinguished the fire, the baby sustained burns. The warmers in question were last manufactured in 1998 but are still in use in some hospitals, and ECRI says several other models with similar heater assemblies may present the same risk.

Concern about surgical fires waned in hospitals after the use of flammable anesthetics, such as ether, was discontinued more than 25 years ago, according to Mark Bruley, vide president of accident investigation and forensics for ECRI. But new risks have emerged with the use of lasers and electrosurgical tools used to cut, cauterize or vaporize tissue in minimally invasive surgical procedures, and the practice of enriching oxygen delivered to patients under anesthesia. Heat sources and oxygen can then combine with potential fuel sources -- alcohol prep solutions, tonsil sponges and even the hair on a patient's eyebrows.

The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals and other medical facilities, first raised a red flag about surgical fires in 2003 and began requiring hospitals to have fire-prevention measures in place in 2007. But hospital staffers often aren't aware of the guidelines, haven't received proper training in fire prevention and don't know about other burn hazards, Mr. Bruley says.

"It's just ludicrous to think you can go into the hospital as a patient and come out with burns," says Cathy Lake, whose mother sustained second- and third-degree burns to her mouth and airway during surgery in 2002 when a topical solution that wasn't allowed to dry on her face was ignited with a spark from an electric-cauterization device. Ms. Lake subsequently started a nonprofit group and Web site, surgicalfire.org, to raise awareness of the issue.

An oxygen tube could be ignited by a surgical laser. ECRI

At the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, operating-room staffers go through a quarterly briefing to review fire-prevention techniques, such as how to avoid igniting paper or cloth around patients with high-heat cauterization tools and the importance of putting electrosurgical devices back in their holsters. "We invite nurses and doctors in to go through all the things that could happen with a show and tell," says hospital safety director George Hettenbach.

Hospitals are also stressing the importance of teamwork in the operating room, where surgeons wield the heat sources, nurses and technicians dispense the disinfectants and ointments that can act as fuel, and anesthesiologists administer oxygen and nitrous oxide. Because each member of the team may be focusing on his own role in a procedure, "the No. 1 cause of fires is lousy communication" says Patricia Seifert, editor-in-chief of AORN Journal, the monthly publication of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. AORN developed a fire-safety tool kit that it sent to 13,000 operating-room directors and managers around the country, and it is now offering the kit free to its 42,000 members.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists, meanwhile, is offering continuing medical education credits for members who take a test based on a practice advisory it issued last year for the prevention and management of operating-room fires. M. Christine Stock, head of anesthesiology services at Northwestern University's medical school, says head and neck surgeries present a special risk because the electrosurgical equipment comes into such close proximity with the oxygen being used on the patient. For example, an 8-year-old boy suffered serious burns to his mouth, throat and lungs after his breathing tube caught fire when he was having his tonsils removed at San Jose Medical Center -- which has since closed -- in 2003.

Patients can take precautions of their own. For example, before entering an MRI machine, remove nicotine patches or patches containing pain drugs such as fentanyl, which can ignite in the machine. Also check that headphones or video goggles aren't damaged. Tattoos containing iron oxide can heat up to cause minor burns. Before surgery, ask what fire-prevention strategies are in use. But, says Dr. Stock, "if you need to have your tonsils taken out or a tumor on your vocal cord removed, we don't want people to avoid the surgery because they are afraid of fire."

Write to Laura Landro at laura.landro@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

Mercy Hospital is located in Coon Rapids, Minn. A previous version of this column in Wednesday's Personal Journal about the risk of fire during medical procedures incorrectly said it was located in Michigan.