Fire Country just started airing season 4, and things are already changing in Edgewater.
The CBS drama is officially back on Friday nights on CBS, and viewers were devastated to discover the aftermath from the explosive season 3 finale. Amid seeing Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon Leone (Diane Farr) attempt to save Vince’s dad Walter (Jeff Fahey) from a burning nursing home, it came with devastating consequences. While Sharon and Walter made it out alive, Billy tragically died and changed the course of the show for the future. What’s more, Vince’s son Bode (Max Thieriot) vowed to uphold his father’s legacy when he spoke at his funeral during the season 4 premiere.
“I’m gonna spend the rest of my career protecting my father’s town, my father’s stations, and my father’s mission,” he shared during his eulogy.
When show co-creator Tony Phelan spoke to TV Insider in September 2025, he explained why it felt necessary to kill Vince off on Fire Country. As he explained to the outlet, he and his co-worker Joan Rater (who also created the show) wanted to share all the facets that come with being a firefighter, like unexpected loss.
“We felt like coming into Season 4, we have a show about wildland firefighters and we have the same cast that we had from the beginning,” Tony told the outlet. “To be truthful to the work that these people do, which is always our desire, we felt like it was time for the show and the characters to have a loss.”
Even though Tony acknowledged Vince’s death felt like a shock, the show wanted to make sure viewers knew how important the character was to Fire Country. What’s more, he shared how this now presents a storyline that’ll affect more than just the Leone family throughout the rest of season 4.
“We want to be very respectful of the character of Vince, of how important he is to the show, and how important Billy was as a presence on the show,” he added. “So, the loss of Vince is going to echo through the entire season, and we are going to see our younger firefighters really have to begin to grapple with growing up and what is the next step for them.”
While Billy hasn’t necessarily spoken out about his exit from Fire Country, Diane exclusively told Good Housekeeping his absence was felt right away in season 4.
“Billy and I went into the fire [in Fire Country season 3] and our producers didn’t tell us who was coming out,” she shared with us in October 2025. “We spent the whole summer, and then it was Billy who told us he was let go … Losing my scene partner in Billy—we built a really strong unit in a show that already has an original wound. And now we’re re-arranging our family, both on and off-screen.”
After all of this, we can only hope Vince’s—and subsequently, Billy’s—presence will continue to be acknowledged in some shape or form.
