Judson, SC
Judson wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Judson at the 45th national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 1,152 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Judson's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 49th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 76% of Judson's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 7% Direct and 16.9% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Judson compares
Judson's 45th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 0th ranking inside South Carolina does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 45 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Judson ranks 17,348 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,946 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 474 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Judson and the insurance market
Judson's elevated rating (45th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 76% of Judson outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Judson's 17,348-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Judson, see the exposure-zones guide.