Nichols, SC
Nichols, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Nichols at the 76th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 327 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Nichols at the 78th percentile, close to its 76th-percentile risk score.
Nichols's building exposure, zone by zone
54.1% of Nichols's 327 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 45.9% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Nichols ranks
There's little gap between Nichols's 76th national percentile and its 76th percentile inside South Carolina, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Nichols ranks 7,636 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,900 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 117 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Nichols and the insurance market
Nichols's 76th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Nichols's 54.1% 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
Nichols's 76th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Nichols, see the exposure-zones guide.