Fire Country Season 4 Trailer Confirms [Spoiler] Is Dead; EPs Weigh In On The 'Huge, Emotional Loss'

Fire Country is officially saying goodbye to one of its own.

CBS on Tuesday released a trailer for Fire Country Season 4, which premieres Friday, Oct. 17, at 8/7c, and revealed a major bombshell: Vince did not survive the Zabel Ridge fire.

"I'm going to spend the rest of my career protecting my father's town, my father's station, my father's mission," an emotional Bode declares during Vince's funeral. The footage also sees Station 42 grappling with their loss, looking for a new chief and facing a suspension from active duty. Plus, Shawn Hatosy (The Pitt) is seen suiting up for a mystery role. (Watch trailer below.)

Fire Country creators/executive producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan told TVLine that they decided to share Vince's death ahead of the Season 4 premiere out of care for the character.

"We want to be respectful of what he means to our fans, what he means to us," Rater shared. Instead of using his death as a gimmick to tune in this fall, Phelan said they wanted the trailer to really establish what Season 4 is all about: Station 42 facing the impact of this loss together.

Plus, Vince's on-screen demise serves an unfortunate reminder of the realities of real-life firefighting. Due to the dangerous nature of the work, Rater felt like they had to lose a firefighter by Season 4 in order to be authentic in the storytelling.

Though Rater said saying goodbye to Billy Burke's character is "a big, huge, emotional loss to the show," the tragedy may not come as a total surprise, since it was reported in April that Burke would exit the CBS drama. Stephanie Arcila is also done as a series regular, though she will appear in the premiere before parting ways with Bode with "the expectation that in the future they will come back together again," per Phelan.

Click PLAY on the trailer above, then hit the comments with your reactions to the big Fire Country trailer reveal!