Season 4 of Fire Country comes in blazing on October 17, 2025, when CBS airs the premiere at 9/8c (with streaming on Paramount+ the next day). Leading into the finale of Season 3, a brutal cliffhanger set the stage: Vince Leone (Billy Burke) perished in a deadly blaze. That decision reshapes Station 42, the Leone family, and even the new spinoff series Sheriff Country.

Vince’s Death & Fallout at Station 42

The Season 4 trailer—released September 23, 2025—confirms that Vince does not survive the collapse of the Zabel Ridge fire scene, while his wife Sharon (Diane Farr) and father Walter (Jeff Fahey) are also trapped inside. In one haunting moment, Bode (Max Thieriot) pleads, “I will never forgive this,” as Jake (Jordan Calloway) restrains him from rushing in. At Vince’s funeral, Bode vows: “I’m going to spend the rest of my career protecting my father’s town, my father’s station, and my father’s mission.”

Co-creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater defended the decision to kill off Vince as a narrative necessity. Phelan explained, “We felt like it was time for the show and the characters to have a loss … that would force them to really reassess where they were and what they were doing.” Rater added: “to play Vince’s death as a gimmick or a [gasp moment] didn’t feel right … prepare the fans and really get into Vince’s death early on and how is this going to impact us.” Because of this, Vince’s absence looms heavily over every character. Phelan teased a “two‑hour single evening event” crossover between Fire Country and Sheriff Country that will explicitly carry the emotional weight.

Enter Brett Richards: Shawn Hatosy’s New Command

To fill the void at the top of Station 42, Shawn Hatosy joins as Battalion Chief Brett Richards—becoming a critical presence in Season 4. In Collider’s reporting, Richards is characterized as someone “no stranger to loss himself,” whose arrival may rescue or destabilize the crew further.

Hatosy, age 49, appears in first-look photos grinning with authority in his new uniform. His character is tasked with assessing whether Station 42 should be dissolved or rebuilt. Phelan explained: “We have been tasked with … deciding, do I dissolve this fire station? Do I reassign everybody, or is there something here that can be saved and reassembled?” In trailers, Richards is shown overseeing drills with 42’s team and watching the tension between Bode and Jake.

How Bode, Sharon & Jake Will Cope

Thieriot says Bode will be pushed into darkness by the magnitude of this loss. He describes Bode’s natural tendency toward compartmentalization crashing headlong into grief. “I’m so worried that Bode is going to put everyone so far ahead of himself that he’ll explode this season,” Thieriot told TV Insider. Bode “hasn’t experienced a loss like this” since his sister died.

Already-strained relationships will crack further. Thieriot says Bode will “question every decision that everybody makes,” putting added pressure on colleagues like Jake. Though Bode is expected to hit moments of complete despair (“I mean, you can’t really get knocked down any further”), the season also charts his path back to strength: “this season is really about rising from the ashes and overcoming.”

Sharon and Bode’s grief plays out in parallel, not together. Rater noted that “she doesn’t want to burden him, he doesn’t want to burden her, and they grieve separately,” despite their inherently interwoven history. Their estranged emotional states will test the family’s bond.

Sheriff Country Connections & Crossovers

The death of Vince (Mickey’s brother-in-law) echoes beyond Station 42. The spinoff Sheriff Country launches concurrently—its premiere also arriving October 17—and will run back-to-back before the two series swap timeslots. Showrunner Matt Lopez states, “There will be crossovers going in both directions … it’s in some of those episodes that you’ll really be feeling [that loss] for those especially who knew Vince, so, Mickey, her dad [W. Earl Brown].”

Executive producer Tony Phelan confirmed the crossover will be visceral: “a two‑hour single evening event … we’ll see how these two worlds crash into each other and they help each other.” Phelan and Rater emphasized the care taken to avoid playing Vince’s death merely as a shock beat—insisting it be woven deeply into both shows’ emotional logic.