Food

Chris Sorensen, the firefighter who co-founded Firehouse Subs, dies at 65

He and his brother started the chain in Jacksonville in 1994. The foundation he helped create has given more than $118 million to fire departments.

Published

10 hours ago

October 21, 2026

Massih Shahbazi

A fire truck parked inside a fire station, in black and white, beside the headline From the firehouse

Most restaurant chains have a founding myth. Firehouse Subs has an actual firehouse. Chris Sorensen, a Jacksonville firefighter who started the chain with his brother in 1994, died on Oct. 11. He was 65.

Sorensen co-founded Firehouse Subs with his brother, Robin, and later helped create the company’s public safety foundation, News4JAX reported. Action News Jax described him as a former Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department firefighter. The reporting reviewed for this story did not give a cause of death, and AIME 360 is not speculating.

From the station to the counter

The chain’s identity came straight from the brothers’ lives. Both had worked as firefighters, and the restaurants they built were decorated with fire department memorabilia, a theme that has stayed with the brand as it grew into one of the country’s better-known sandwich chains.

That origin isn’t just decoration. It shaped how the company spent its money. In 2005, Sorensen helped found the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, which has since awarded more than $118 million in grants to some 7,700 departments across the United States and Canada, according to News4JAX. The grants pay for equipment and training that local fire and rescue departments often can’t afford on their own.

A business that kept a mission

Follow the money and the foundation stands out. Restaurant chains give to charity all the time, but few tie it so directly to their founders’ first careers. For small-town fire departments that can’t stretch their budgets to cover new rescue tools or protective gear, a grant can be the difference between having the equipment and going without.

The foundation is also good business, and there’s no point pretending otherwise. A clear, consistent cause builds customer loyalty, and the chain regularly asks diners to round up their bills or buy products that benefit the foundation. This week, in fact, the company announced a limited-edition K-9 plush collection honoring real-life hero dogs, going on sale Oct. 28 for $9.95 each with all net profits going to the foundation, the company said.

“Just a super good guy”

Those who knew Sorensen remembered him for more than the sandwiches. News4JAX collected tributes under a headline quoting one of them: “Just a super good guy.” Another report quoted people saying he was “going to be missed.”

A celebration of life is planned for Friday, Oct. 23, at 10 a.m. at The Church of Eleven22 on Longleaf Pine Parkway in St. Johns County, Florida, according to News4JAX. In lieu of flowers, the family asked for donations to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation or to a speech program at Brooks Rehabilitation, according to the same report.

The Hook & Ladder test

The plush launch is paired with a fundraiser built around one of the chain’s signature sandwiches: on the same day, 100% of Hook & Ladder purchases, excluding taxes, go to the foundation, the company said. Promotions like that blur the line between marketing and giving, and customers can judge that for themselves.

What’s harder to argue with is the scale. More than $118 million is real money, distributed to thousands of departments that serve small towns and big cities alike. A grant program that size is the kind of legacy few restaurant founders leave.

Jacksonville’s own

Firehouse Subs started in Jacksonville and has stayed closely tied to the city, even as it grew far beyond Florida and became part of a much larger restaurant group. For local firefighters, Sorensen was one of their own who built something national and kept sending money back to departments like the one he came from.

That kind of founder story is getting rarer. Most chains of Firehouse’s size are now run by corporate owners and private equity firms, and the founders are long gone from day-to-day decisions. The foundation Sorensen helped build is one of the parts of his legacy that doesn’t depend on who owns the restaurants.

What the counter staff know

For the people working the line at a Firehouse Subs, the founder’s story is part of the job. The decor, the round-up requests, the fundraisers: all of it traces back to two brothers who’d spent their careers answering emergency calls. Customers see a theme. The firefighters who received grants see equipment that may one day help them save someone.

The sandwiches will keep coming out of the kitchen. What Sorensen built alongside them, a steady stream of money to people who run toward danger, may turn out to be the more lasting part of his work.