As colleagues on NBC’s long-running “Chicago Fire, captain Mathew Casey (Jesse Spencer) and rescue squad lieutenant Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) have shared plenty of first responder adventures on the hit show. In Spencer’s case, he starred in the action-drama for a total of 200 episodes before exiting the franchise early in Season 10. As for Kinney, his episode tally is currently 200-plus and counting (per IMDb). And for almost all of these episodes of the series, the two actors are seen on-screen working closely as a team in one capacity or another.

During their many episodes together, the two characters’ relationship in the series evolved from mildly adversarial to competitive to genuine bro-dom, as they came to rely on each other more and more, both on duty and when dealing with complications in their personal lives. All of that being said, after spending so much time in close quarters rescuing victims, dousing flames, and giving each other relationship advice on “Chicago Fire,” are Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney actually friends in real life? Let’s investigate.

Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney seem to be buddies off camera

If various social media posts are anything to go by, it looks like Spencer and Kinney spend a fair amount of time in each other’s company when not on the set of “Chicago Fire” or making appearances in crossover events with sister shows “Chicago P.D” and “Chicago Med.” But what’s the tangible evidence that they’re real buds when out in the real world?

Well, on Twitter, @onechicagonews posted a brief video of what appears to be a sound-asleep Taylor Kinney snoozing on the floor of Firehouse 51 as a mischievous Jesse Spencer quietly decorates Kinney’s shirt with bits of some mysterious substance. Does on-the-set pranking like this constitute friendship? We’d like to think so.

Then, in a photo posted on the Instagram account of the actor who plays paramedic Sylvie Brett (Kara Kilmer), the two men are seen with arms around each other’s shoulders at a Chicago Bears’ game. And finally, another tweet, posted on @bestofjspencer, shows the actors laughing it up at a Chicago Cubs’ ballgame with the revealing title, “Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney friendship for your TL.” Taking all of the above into account, there would appear to be little doubt that despite all the on-screen days, weeks, and months shooting “Chicago Fire” together, Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney are good friends when just kicking back in real life.