St. Matthews, SC
St. Matthews, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
St. Matthews's 1,321 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.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks St. Matthews at the 69th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of St. Matthews's buildings (57.8%) 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.
How St. Matthews compares
There's little gap between St. Matthews's 70th national percentile and its 59th 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, St. Matthews ranks 9,396 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,971 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 194 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
St. Matthews'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.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in St. Matthews (57.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where St. Matthews's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind St. Matthews's 9,396-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Matthews's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.