In some disappointing news, there’s a major change to the Fire Country cast for season 4. Two of the original stars will not return, and one of them is Billy Burke, who plays Vince Leone on the series. The loss of his character is going to affect many around, including Bode (Max Thieriot) and Sharon (Diane Farr).

Burke hasn’t spoken out about his departure from the series, which ScreenRant reports is mostly due to creative decisions rather than budget cuts. It’s clear that he isn’t happy with the decision, because he’s not the one who wants to leave the show. You can tell from the social media posts that he loves the job he’s doing.

Back in 2022, Burke had praised Fire Country and the cast. He made it clear that the time that he loved working with his fellow cast members, and he thought the series was one of the best on TV. It’s clear that viewers thought that as well, as it continued to perform well on Friday nights.

Things have certainly changed, as the end of Fire Country season 3 saw lives put on the line. As it’s TV, we thought for sure that everyone would make it out alive, but now we have our doubts. After the season 3 finale, we got confirmation that Burke and Stephanie Arcila would be leaving the show.

While Arcila has spoken out about the exit, Burke has not, and that usually speaks volumes. It means that he’d rather not risk saying anything he’ll regret.

Why is Vince leaving Fire Country?

The 2024–2025 TV season has been packed with “creative decisions” that fans hate. Just look at 911 and the decision to kill off Bobby Nash, which has led to a lot of anger around the fandom. Then there were worries that NCIS would do the same, and then Fire Country delivered an intense season 3 finale.

Based on the wording of showrunner Tia Napolitano, it looks like Fire Country season 4 will open with deaths. She shared that the aim is to make the series realistic, and that includes the dangers of the job. The aim of this storyline is to honor the high stakes as a firefighter, which certainly suggests that Burke’s character will not make it out alive.

“That’s a reality, there’s danger in this sort of job, so we wanted to honor that and really up the stakes.”

No, we’re not happy about it, either, and Fire Country will not be the same without Billy Burke.

Fire Country will return on Fridays at 9/8c on CBS in fall 2025.