Summit, SC
Summit, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Summit lands at the 63rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 269 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Summit at the 63rd percentile, close to its 63rd-percentile risk score.
Where Summit's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 91.8% of Summit's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 8.2% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 247 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Summit against the rest of the country
Summit's 63rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 27th ranking inside South Carolina does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 36 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Summit ranks 11,830 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,550 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 348 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Summit
Summit's 63rd-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
Summit's 91.8% 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.
Where Summit's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 269 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Summit. The exposure-zones guide covers what Summit's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.