'Chicago Fire' season 5 news: Jimmy Borelli makes surprising departure

Firefighter candidate/paramedic Jimmy Borelli (Steven R. McQueen) has left the force.

In the latest episode of "Chicago Fire" season 5 titled "A Real Wake-Up Call," Borelli was involved in an unfortunate accident that left him unable to continue working with the Chicago Fire Department. The young man was badly burned and without an eye after attempting to save a woman whose car was about to burst into flames. Though Borelli survived the ordeal, his blaze-battling days are over.

Fortunately, the character didn't exit without some sort of closure in his feud with Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker). Borelli had been falsely accusing Boden of being responsible for the death of his older brother, Danny (Andy Ahrens ), who died in season 4. In his final scene in "A Real Wake-Up Call," Borelli shared a quiet moment with Boden that let viewers know that they were finally okay.

McQueen joined the cast of "Chicago Fire" at the beginning of season 4. Prior to his casting in the action/drama series, the actor was in The CW's "The Vampire Diaries."

As the supernatural/fantasy series is just days away from debuting its eighth and final season, McQueen's fans are wondering whether or not he left "Chicago Fire" so that he could make a surprise return on "The Vampire Diaries."

According to Entertainment Weekly, NBC currently has no plans of bringing McQueen back to the series.

"Chicago Fire" executive producer Michael Brandt explained the decision behind Jimmy's departure in an interview with TV Line, saying, "We've wrestled with this over the last four years, in terms of threats and real dangers to people in the firehouse."

"With Jimmy's character, it just felt like he needed to stand up for what he believed in, but Boden needed to stand up for what he believed in," he added, "and those two things couldn't live together."

Brandt also addressed the possibility of having Borelli back somewhere down the road.

"Character-wise, you can never burn bridges on a show too badly to not salvage them," he said. "He goes out fighting for what he believes in, and there's nothing wrong with that," he added.

"Chicago Fire" season 5 airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EDT on NBC.