Cheraw, SC
How exposed is Cheraw to wildfire?
Cheraw's 2,495 buildings earn a 77th-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 Cheraw at the 78th percentile, close to its 77th-percentile risk score.
Where Cheraw's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 59.3% of Cheraw's 2,495 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 40.7% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Cheraw against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Cheraw's 77th national percentile and its 77th 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, Cheraw ranks 7,286 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,303 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 110 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cheraw
Cheraw's 77th-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Cheraw (59.3% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Cheraw's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,495 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cheraw. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cheraw's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.