Bamberg, SC
How exposed is Bamberg to wildfire?
Bamberg's 1,883 buildings earn a 65th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Bamberg at the 64th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
1,883 buildings are counted in Bamberg, and 62.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 37.9% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Bamberg compares
Inside South Carolina, Bamberg sits at just the 34th percentile even though it scores 65th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bamberg ranks 11,134 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,815 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 315 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 65th percentile nationally, Bamberg carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Bamberg's 62.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Bamberg's 11,134-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Bamberg, see the exposure-zones guide.