3-(Hydroxyphenyl phosphinyl) propanoic acid (HPPA) has been one of the most commonly used durable flame retardant agents for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for many years. We intended to explore the application of HPPA to cellulose fabrics as formaldehyde-free phosphorus based flame retardants (FRs) through green chemistry process. The flame retardancy of the flame-retardant treated cellulose fabrics were characterized by using inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (ICP) and limiting oxygen index (LOI). Structural changes of the treated cellulose fabrics were carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. To enhance the flame retardancy of HPPA treated cellulose fibers, glycerol polyglycidyl ether (GPE), a crosslinking agent was employed. Both HPPA and GPE treated cotton fabric imparted an LOI value over 26.