St. Charles, SC
St. Charles, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
St. Charles's 133 buildings earn a 70th-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, St. Charles's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 70th percentile nationally.
St. Charles's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in St. Charles: 72.9% of its 133 buildings, versus 27.1% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
St. Charles against the rest of the country
St. Charles's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Carolina (58th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (70th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Charles ranks 9,468 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,594 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 199 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
St. Charles and the insurance market
St. Charles's high rating (70th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in St. Charles
With 72.9% of St. Charles in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind St. Charles's 9,468-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond St. Charles, see the exposure-zones guide.