JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville firefighter helped grow a sandwich shop he opened with his brother in 1994 into a national chain worth $1 billion died this week.<\/p>\n
Chris Sorensen was 65.<\/p>\n
Sorensen opened Firehouse Subs with his Jacksonville firefighter brother Robin. Its popularity grew, first in Jacksonville and then around the country.<\/p>\n
By the time the pair sold it to Restaurant Brands International in 2021 for $1 billion in a cash deal, the chain had grown to about 1,200 restaurants.<\/p>\n
\u201cJacksonville lost a true local legend this week,\u201d a post on Instagram read.<\/p>\n
In addition to business success, the brothers never lost sight of this roots in public service.<\/p>\n
Sorensen was the son of retired Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department Captain Robert \u201cCaptain Video\u201d Sorensen, who dedicated 43 years to the department. <\/p>\n
His brother, Robin, also served as a firefighter with Jacksonville International Airport. <\/p>\n
In 2005, they established the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, which has awarded more than $110 million in grants to support first responders and public safety organizations.<\/p>\n
He leaves behind his wife, Kirsten, his children and grandchildren. His sister, Cecily Sorensen, was a longtime communications executive at Firehouse Subs.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville firefighter helped grow a sandwich shop he opened with his brother in 1994…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,347,28,348,116,351,118,117,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-431077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-cbs47","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}