It is tough being a fan of firefighter shows when Fire Country, 9-1-1, Chicago Fire and more are killing — or just writing off — our favorite characters one by one.
While character deaths and dramatic series exits aren’t new, there has been an unprecedented amount in 2025. 9-1-1 drew public attention to the trend when Peter Krause‘s Bobby Nash died in an April 2025 episode after eight seasons on the hit series. Creator Tim Minear confirmed at the time that it wasn’t the actor’s decision to leave 9-1-1.
“I still think people grip their seats and are excited when Athena lands a plane on the freeway or a ship capsizes — but after eight years, it just felt like, if we have any hope of creating stories going forward that have actual stakes, then someone’s got to die,” Minear told Variety about why it “made sense” for that to be Bobby. “If you track the tragic arc of his character, of where he started, and how he came to L.A. looking for atonement, it just makes a kind of tragic sense for his character in a way it wouldn’t for another character.”
Minear concluded: “But also, I just didn’t want to go small. Not that any of the characters are small, but Bobby’s death affects every single character’s story in a way that really no other character death would.”
The hits just kept coming when that same month, Fire Country wrapped up its third season on a cliffhanger — only for news to break that Stephanie Arcila would be exiting the show after three seasons. While Arcila could return as a guest star, her costar Billy Burke was reportedly stepping away from the show after his character, Vince, was seemingly killed off in an explosion.
“I had no idea ever. But at the same time, I know that this is the nature of the industry that I’m in, and I have accepted the flow of release and acceptance throughout my journey and knowing that when one door closes, another one always opens,” she exclusively told Us Weekly after the controversial exit. “We have this beautiful eternal door of revolving desires in what we love in life. I believe that if we put resistance towards that, sometimes it stops us from fulfilling other things that we love.”
9-1-1 and Fire Country aren’t the only shows to take such big swings. Keep scrolling as Us explains why it seems like every TV show centered on firefighters is dealing with an onscreen death or an offscreen exit:
The Key Players
Just in April 2025 alone, 9-1-1 killed off Krause’s Bobby while Fire Country lost both Arcila and Burke’s characters ahead of its fourth season. Then there is Jake Lockett over on Chicago Fire, who also surprised Us when he announced that his character will exit the show in season 14. Lockett joins Daniel Kyri, who is also leaving Firehouse 51 after playing Ritter.
