A faulty MR machine forced the evacuation of part of Michigan Medicine's East Ann Arbor Health and Geriatrics Center last Thursday afternoon.

Smoke coming from the control panel alerted staffers, who called the Ann Arbor Township fire department, reported MLive.

The culprit turned out to be a transformer housed in a different room than the MR machine, according to Ann Arbor Township Fire Capt. Lewis Kempf.
The smoke-eaters shut the machine completely off and called for a specialized technician to deal with the problem.

Damage to the system was estimated to be about $100,000.

In this case, both staff and firefighters responded carefully and correctly when facing a possible fire in an MR facility – never a risk-free environment.

When people think of MR danger, they usually think of metal objects and medical devices causing trouble in the MR room. At RSNA in November, Armen Kocharian, Ph.D., senior imaging physicist, Houston Methodist Hospital, noted that there has been an almost 500 percent increase in MR adverse events from 2000 to 2009 in the face of only a 114 percent increase in volume growth.

But what of external mishaps, like the Ann Arbor fire or, for that matter, the MR machine that exploded in a New Jersey veterinary clinic in March, 2015?

That latter tragedy happened when workers attempted to disassemble a machine, as HCB News reported. While animals and people were evacuated safely, the explosion caused a portion of the hospital's roof to collapse. All three construction workers were injured in the blast.

This issue of safely handling fire and other emergencies around an MR machine is something to deal with before, not during, a problem, according to RADblog.

That site offered a handful of quick tips to stay ahead of potential problems, including:

• Consider who (patients, staff, visitors, clinicians) and what (wheelchairs, gurneys, cylinders, ladders…) is brought into the MR suite and what risks are presented.


• If a patient codes, who are the responders (day, night, weekend)? What do they know about MR hazards?


• If the facility must be evacuated (fire alarm, security, hazmat team) who are the responders? Will they want to enter the MR suite? What is their training?


• If power to the cold head is out for an extended period, do maintenance staff, contractors and others know of the potential quench risks?


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