Winnsboro, SC
How exposed is Winnsboro to wildfire?
Winnsboro's 1,813 buildings earn a 68th-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 Winnsboro at the 71st national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Winnsboro's buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Winnsboro: 55.6% of its 1,813 buildings, versus 44.4% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Where Winnsboro ranks
Winnsboro ranks lower within South Carolina (51st percentile statewide) than its 68th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Winnsboro ranks 9,968 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,024 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 233 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Winnsboro and the insurance market
Winnsboro's 68th-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 Winnsboro (55.6%), 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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Winnsboro's 9,968-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Winnsboro, see the exposure-zones guide.