Ware Shoals, SC
Ware Shoals, SC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Ware Shoals's 1,033 buildings earn a 65th-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, Ware Shoals's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 68th percentile nationally.
Where Ware Shoals's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Ware Shoals: 52.2% of its 1,033 buildings, versus 47.8% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Ware Shoals against the rest of the country
Inside South Carolina, Ware Shoals sits at just the 37th percentile even though it scores 65th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Ware Shoals ranks 10,948 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,708 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 302 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Ware Shoals
Ware Shoals's 65th-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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Ware Shoals (52.2%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Ware Shoals's 65th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Ware Shoals, see the exposure-zones guide.