Probe of Fire that Claimed OH Dad, Sons Continues

Jan. 25, 2024
Mark Robinette, a pastor, went back into the Orient house to try to save his sons, Gideon, 17, and Liam, 10.

Cliff Pinckard

cleveland.com

(TNS)

ORIENT, Ohio — A pastor tried to save his two sons but all three ended up dying early Tuesday morning in a house fire in Pickaway County, reports say.

post on gofundme says Mark Robinette, 55, man did get his wife and two other children out of the home when the fire broke out. Robinette died when he went back in the home attempting to help his two other children, sons Gideon Robinette, 17, and Liam Robinette, 10, who were in an upstairs bedroom, the post says.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Mark Robinette was the vocational pastor at Foundation Church in Mount Sterling.

“Mark was the most giving person that you could ever imagine and he had a heart for people who were homeless and on drugs, and that’s what their ministry and their church was all about,” family member Hugh Rose tells WCMH Channel 4.

The fire was reported at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to WBNS Channel 10. The three surviving family members were treated and released at a hospital, reports say.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Fire and Explosion Investigations Bureau.

Orient is located about 15 miles southwest of downtown Columbus.

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