Historically people in colder climates (where they needed fire the most) would use wool, which is naturally flame resistant. As a careless kid I escaped getting

Historically people in colder climates (where they needed fire the most) would use wool, which is naturally flame resistant. As a careless kid I escaped getting burned at least twice due to this fact. First incident was when I held my socks really close to an open flame. Second when I overturned a space heater onto a neighbor's rug. In both cases the wool fabric carbonized slowly instead of catching fire. (Of course, the neighbor was not happy; but a house fire would have been much worse.) It is unfortunate that wool has become rarely used in modern society, as we now have to deal with the trade-off between flammable fabrics or potentially harmful fire retardants.