TENINO, Wash. -- According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an average of 120 clothing-caused, fire-related deaths occurred in the United States each year between 2002 and 2004. Nearly 4,000 injuries each year were treated in hospitals, all from burning clothes, even though federal flammability standards have been in place for more than fifty years.

A Northwest woman recently learned that even federal flammability standards are no guarantee you won't get burned.

"That's where it started, right there," said Patti Bingham of Tenino.

Bingham is surprised her bathrobe isn't more damaged, after she says it caught fire while she was wearing it.

MORE ON THIS STORY If you'd like to read more about flammability standards, here's information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"Didn't feel it at all until it burned here," she said.

The Tenino woman was recently home watching TV. She lit a cigarette, then dropped her lighter to the floor, thinking she had closed it. She hadn't.

"I looked down and I thought, 'Oh my God, better get that, it's going to burn the carpet.' I picked it up, closed it, and I was still watching TV and I felt something hot on my neck and smelled hair."

Without her even knowing it, Bingham says the arm of her bathrobe caught fire and spread from her wrist to her neck.

"Flame all the way up, and the thing I remember most is there was blue flame and then yellow at the top. (I) kind of went into shock, and I said, 'Fire! Fire!'"

"I looked, and her whole arm was engulfed," said Cody Bingham, her husband.

Fortunately, Cody Bingham was sitting in the chair next to her and was able to smother the flames.

"I was totally shocked at the amount of flame that came off of that," Cody Bingham said.

Both Binghams say they were surprised the robe caught fire and spread so quickly, believing federal flammability standards would prevent such a thing from happening.

"I thought they'd taken care of stuff like that," Patti said.

In the past 30 years, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced at least 14 recalls for hundreds of thousands of bathrobes sold to men, women and children, all for violating federal flammability standards.

For adults, the CPSC regulation establishes that a Class 1 garment with a raised surface fabric, like Bingham's cotton chenille bathrobe, have a flame spread time of more than seven seconds.

Blair, the company that sold Bingham's robe, tells KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators, that style of bathrobe passed federal flammability standards with ease, claiming it took much longer than seven seconds for flames to spread during its mandatory lab tests.

According to the CPSC, "fabrics that do not comply with the standard typically burn faster than newspaper" -- as Bingham says her bathrobe did.

"It was just scary," she said.

Something else that frightens the Binghams is how difficult it was to get Patti out of the robe.

"It's got eight buttons down the front of it. If she had still been on fire, I couldn't have got her out of it," Cody Bingham said.

Wayne Senter is a 30-year fire fighting veteran and the President of Washington State Fire Chiefs. He says federal flammability standards simply regulate the rate of burning, and do not mean an article of clothing won't catch fire and burn.

Clancy: "So people shouldn't assume that something they're wearing is safe just because the CPSC has flammability standards?"

Senter: "They should never make that assumption. If it is tested and it is produced in conformance with the flammability standards it should be on a tag, and you should be able to read that. And that's the only way you're going to really know."

The Binghams have filed a complaint with the CPSC, which launched an investigation after questions from KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators.

A spokesman for Blair says the company has also started to look into what happened and why.

Blair will re-test Patti Bingham's bathrobe for flammability and a team will re-examine whether the eight-button design is something the company wants to continue.

Either way, the Binghams say their story should be a wake-up call for consumers.

"I will never again wear a bathrobe that has a full zipper or buttons," Patti said.

"Be more aware of what you're doing if you're wearing one of these bathrobes. Don't be cooking on a gas stove. Don't be around lit candles or anything like that," said Cody.

In fact, Blair says two similar complaints regarding the same style bathrobe have been filed with the company in just the past few months. One robe caught fire while the wearer was cooking over a gas stove. The other, while the wearer was reaching over a lit candle -- just as Cody Bingham feared.

Flammability standards for children's garments are much stricter than for adults'.

They "require sleepwear, including robes, to be flame resistant, and if the garment ignites, the flame must self-extinguish."

If you'd like to read more about flammability standards, here's information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.