South Mount Vernon, OH
South Mount Vernon wildfire risk explained
USFS scores South Mount Vernon at the 21st national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 519 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 South Mount Vernon at the 22nd percentile, close to its 21st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of South Mount Vernon's buildings (72.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Where South Mount Vernon ranks
Within Ohio, South Mount Vernon ranks higher (52nd percentile) than it does nationally (21st) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Mount Vernon ranks 24,840 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,043 by building count (1 is largest). Within Ohio alone, it ranks 610 of 1,264 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Ohio on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
South Mount Vernon's moderate rating (21st 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in South Mount Vernon (72.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 519 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for South Mount Vernon. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond South Mount Vernon, see the exposure-zones guide.