Fripp Island, SC
Fripp Island, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Fripp Island at the 89th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 1,388 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Fripp Island's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 80th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Fripp Island's 1,388 counted buildings, 67.9% carry Direct exposure and only 5.8% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Fripp Island compares
Fripp Island scores 89th nationally and 96th within South Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Fripp Island ranks 3,537 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,677 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 21 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
Fripp Island's very high rating (89th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With 67.9% of Fripp Island in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Fripp Island's 3,537-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Fripp Island, see the exposure-zones guide.