Yemassee, SC
Yemassee wildfire risk explained
Yemassee sits at the 81st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 774 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Yemassee's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 79th percentile nationally.
Where Yemassee's buildings actually sit
774 buildings are counted in Yemassee, and 90.1% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Yemassee compares
Yemassee scores 81st nationally and 86th 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, Yemassee ranks 6,061 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,885 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 66 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
Yemassee and the insurance market
Yemassee's very high rating (81st percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With 90.1% of Yemassee 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.
More on how this number was built
Yemassee's 81st-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 Yemassee, see the exposure-zones guide.