Pauline, SC
How exposed is Pauline to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Pauline at the 62nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 168 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Pauline's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Where Pauline's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 99.4% of Pauline's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0.6% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 167 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Pauline against the rest of the country
Pauline's 62nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 25th 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, Pauline ranks 11,986 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,113 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 355 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Pauline
Pauline'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.
What would actually reduce this score
Pauline's 99.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Pauline's 62nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Pauline, see the exposure-zones guide.