Bennettsville, SC
Bennettsville wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Bennettsville at the 78th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 3,698 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Bennettsville's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 79th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
56.2% of Bennettsville's 3,698 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 40.8% Direct and 3% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Bennettsville compares
There's little gap between Bennettsville's 78th national percentile and its 79th percentile inside South Carolina, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Bennettsville ranks 6,946 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,529 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 98 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Bennettsville
Bennettsville's 78th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Bennettsville
Bennettsville's 56.2% 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
Bennettsville's 78th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Bennettsville, see the exposure-zones guide.