drying by means of a mechanical crimping process and then cut to form staple alternatively the fibre after curing may be cut to form staple washed and dried as staple the flame retardant chemical may be applied to the fibre in staple form rather than in tow form thus after the leaching operation the fibre can be cut to form staple washed and the flame retardant chemical can then be applied to the staple the staple can then be cured washed and dried as staple it is preferred however that the fr chemical be applied to the fibre in tow form because it is found that there is less entangling of the fibre and the tow treated fibre may be more readily carded to produce an open structure suitable for spinning the treated fibre can then be processed in a conventional manner to produce fabric in the case of filamentary material the filament would be wound up and converted by weaving or knitting or non woven methods to produce a fabric in the case of staple fibre the fibre would be carded spun and the yarn produced by spinning could be woven or knitted to produce a suitable fabric the fabric may be dyed either after production or it may be dyed as yarn to produce a coloured yarn for the production of fabric rather than using thp or other phosphorous based compounds typically quaternary phosphorous based compounds nitrogen based compounds can be used or any other suitable flame retardant by incorporating the flame retardant chemical into the fibre in the never dried state it is possible.