A small Ohio community is remembering Pastor Mark Robinette as a hero following his death in a house fire. Robinette died trying to save two of his sons.
When a fire broke out in the home around midnight on the evening of Monday, Jan. 22, Robinette helped his wife and two of his children get to safety before going back inside to help his sons Liam (10) and Gideon (17). Tragically, the three did not escape the fire before the home collapsed.
According to Daily Mail, the three were found “holding onto each other.”
Robinette, who with his wife had eight children, was the pastor of Foundation Church in Mt. Sterling, Ohio, a congregation he founded in 2000. In addition to pastoring the church, he was also actively involved in missionary efforts in Myanmar.
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The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but investigators do not suspect foul play.
Loved ones and community members have described Robinette as someone who would do anything for those he loved, even at the expense of his life.
“He pushed some of them out the window but he was determined he was going to get them all out. And if there was a way, he would have,” Geoffrey Trapani, Robinette’s brother-in-law, told WHIO.
Trapani described Robinette and his sons as “three remarkable people, and there is a hole in the world without them.”
Robert Ferguson, who was Robinette’s childhood pastor, said, “It’s like Mark to go back in that house, give his life for a cause that he believed in. He did that with the ministry…He did that with his family. What a man.”
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Describing the impact of Robinette’s life and ministry, Trapani told WBNS, “He was involved in a lot of things. If he saw a need, he was involved in it. If he saw people in need, he was involved in it.”