Flame-resistant (FR) clothing can increase the chances of survival and decrease the need for medical treatment and the chances of subsequent infections. It can help preserve the quality of life of a worker exposed to an electric arc flash.

Wearing ordinary clothes, especially synthetic fabrics like nylon, in an arc flash may make injuries worse than if the skin was not covered at all. Denim jeans and jackets, cotton shirts, cotton/synthetic T-shirts, sweatshirts, fleeces or nylon jackets are fuel sources that ignite, burn and frequently melt onto the skin. The heavier the weight of the fabric, the more fuel there is to burn. The explosion may be over in less than a second, but non-FR clothing may keep burning. It takes just three seconds to sustain third-degree burns.