Cherryvale, SC
Cherryvale wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cherryvale at the 69th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,452 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cherryvale at the 69th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Cherryvale (48.5% of 1,452 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 46.2% sit in the Direct zone.
How Cherryvale compares
Cherryvale's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Carolina (54th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (69th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cherryvale ranks 9,749 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,386 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 217 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cherryvale
Cherryvale's 69th-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 Cherryvale
Because 48.5% of Cherryvale's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Cherryvale's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,452 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cherryvale. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cherryvale's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.