Irmo, SC
Irmo, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Irmo's 5,299 buildings earn a 62nd-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.)
Separately from the risk score above, Irmo's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Where Irmo's buildings actually sit
57.9% of Irmo's 5,299 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 37.8% Direct and 4.3% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 5,299 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Irmo compares
Irmo's 62nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 26th ranking inside South Carolina does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 37 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Irmo ranks 11,929 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,256 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 353 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
Irmo's 62nd-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
Irmo's 57.9% 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Irmo's 11,929-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Irmo, see the exposure-zones guide.