Ok, that's not normally what you'd want to happen during surgery:

Seattle police launched an investigation on Friday to determine how a patient undergoing emergency heart surgery caught on fire at a local hospital in 2003.

The male patient, who was not identified, went up in flames after alcohol poured on his skin was ignited by a surgical instrument.

The article says the patient died, but from heart failure, not burning. Not knowing just how big a fire they're talking about, I guess it could be true. Then again, if I were that family I'd be pretty interested to find out just who did the autopsy.