Great Falls, SC
Great Falls wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Great Falls at the 68th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,254 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Great Falls's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 71st percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 57.6% of Great Falls's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 42.4% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 722 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Great Falls compares
Inside South Carolina, Great Falls sits at just the 49th percentile even though it scores 68th 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, Great Falls ranks 10,128 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,327 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 243 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Great Falls
Great Falls's 68th-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 Great Falls
Because Direct exposure dominates in Great Falls (57.6%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Great Falls's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,254 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Great Falls. The exposure-zones guide covers what Great Falls's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.