Tamassee, SC
Tamassee, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Tamassee's 85 buildings earn a 78th-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 Tamassee at the 81st national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Tamassee's 85 counted buildings, 91.8% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Tamassee compares
Tamassee scores 78th nationally and 80th within South Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tamassee ranks 6,881 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,708 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 97 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
Tamassee's 78th-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
With 91.8% of Tamassee 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.
Where Tamassee's figures come from
Tamassee's 78th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Tamassee's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.