Summerville, SC
How exposed is Summerville to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Summerville at the 75th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 18,409 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Summerville at the 74th percentile, close to its 75th-percentile risk score.
Summerville's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Summerville's buildings (57.1%) 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. At 18,409 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Summerville against the rest of the country
Summerville's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Carolina (74th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (75th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Summerville ranks 7,796 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 777 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 122 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Summerville
At the 75th percentile nationally, Summerville carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Summerville
Summerville's 57.1% 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.
Where Summerville's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 18,409 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Summerville. The exposure-zones guide covers what Summerville's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.