Firehouse Subs co-founder Chris Sorensen has died at 65 after building a billion-dollar sandwich brand with his brother and steering millions toward first responders.
Fox News Digital reported that Chris Sorensen passed away Oct. 11 at his home near Jacksonville, Florida. He was 65.
Alongside younger brother Robin, he turned a 1994 Jacksonville shop into a national chain later sold for $1 billion. The pair also built a public-safety foundation that has poured more than $118 million into fire and rescue departments across the United States and Canada.
Mike Hancock, president of Firehouse Subs for North America, issued a statement mourning the loss and pointing to the work the brothers left behind.
"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Chris Sorensen, co-founder of Firehouse Subs. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends and all who knew him."
Hancock added that Chris, with Robin, "built Firehouse Subs into the brand it is today and helped establish the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, creating a lasting legacy of giving back to first responders and the communities they serve."
He closed: "We are forever grateful for his contributions to our brand and the countless lives he touched."
Before the restaurants, Sorensen lived the job the brand later celebrated. He worked for the Brevard County Fire Department, then the Jacksonville International Airport Fire and Rescue Department, and spent 10 years as an engineer and EMT with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.
His father, Captain Rob Sorensen, served with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue at the same time. Chris followed that path before shifting into the restaurant business with Robin.
The brothers opened the first Firehouse Subs in Jacksonville in 1994. Reporting cited by the New York Post and others noted they had less than $100 in their checking accounts when they started.
The first order was not even a sub. Robin later told the Jacksonville Daily Record that two hot dogs with everything walked through the door, about 10 ingredients, and the crew was not ready.
"We were so focused on the subs, we weren't prepared for that order. Needless to say, it was a long ticket time."
That small shop grew. By the time Restaurant Brands International bought Firehouse Subs in 2021 for $1 billion, the brand had expanded past 1,200 locations. Restaurant Brands also owns Burger King.
Readers who follow farewells to American originals will recognize the pattern seen when Mike Ditka was recalled for gridiron grit and blunt talk: a life defined by work, plain speech, and a clear public record.
Sorensen’s obituary, linked through Dignity Memorial and summarized in the coverage, said he worked as a professional guitarist before the restaurants. He sat in with bands that included Huey Lewis and the News, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Inside the restaurants he took creative ownership of the look. Custom murals became a signature, including one at the historic San Marco Square location in Jacksonville that featured his father. Coverage described Chris as a collector of historical artifacts and the chain’s unofficial archivist.
That mix of service roots, music, and hands-on brand building is the kind of American story that draws the same audience that read about character actor Richard Riehle, known for Office Space, dying at 78, people who left a mark without needing a political title.
In 2005, Chris and Robin created the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. Its mission is straightforward: get life-saving equipment, tools, and education to first responders.
According to the obituary details carried in the reporting, the foundation has awarded more than $118 million in grants to 7,700 departments in the U.S. and Canada.
That is not abstract charity. It is gear and training for the same kind of departments where Chris once worked as an EMT and engineer.
Tributes to major cultural figures often bring messy aftermaths, as recent coverage of Dolly Parton’s nephew and court filings after her death has shown. Sorensen’s public record, by contrast, stays fixed on the shops, the foundation, and the people who wear the badge.
No cause of death was released in the material available. The date given is Oct. 11. The place is his home near Jacksonville.
What is not in dispute is the arc: firefighter and musician, then co-founder with his brother of a sandwich chain that started on almost nothing, scaled past 1,200 stores, sold for a billion dollars, and kept a foundation that still writes big checks to first responders.
Hancock’s statement put the corporate view in plain terms, gratitude for the brand and for the lives touched. The foundation numbers put a harder figure on the second half of that claim.
Other recent farewells have mixed legacy with family conflict, including reporting on how Dolly Parton’s manager won a restraining order against a nephew. Nothing in the Sorensen coverage points that direction. The file stays on work, family partnership, and grants.
Chris Sorensen helped build a familiar American brand the old way, small bank account, long hours, a brother as partner, and a direct line back to the firehouse. The stores and the foundation outlast the man. That is the measure that matters.
