Abstract: A flame-retardant woven fabric is composed of a warp interwoven with a weft. The threads of the warp contain substantially exclusively staple fibers, and the threads of the weft contain substantially exclusively flame-retardant matrix fibers. The respective thicknesses and densities of the warp and weft threads can be varied so that the matrix fiber content may be varied from about 50% to about 75%, by volume, of the total.

Abstract: A method for producing chemically untreated fire resistant fiber blends includes the steps of separately blowing and carding bundles of selected matrix and staple fibers, respectively, to form separate slivers of each of the two fibers. Given proportions of each fiber are then combined during a common drawing step to form a bulky blended sliver which is then conventionally processed to produce a fire resistant yarn. The yarn is suitable for knitting or weaving to provide fabrics which far exceed current government fire resistant standards.