West Virginia Assistant State Treasurer Mike Comer presented the Carnegie Medal to Andrea Robinette, the widow of Carnegie Hero Mark Robinette, at a presentation held at the Foundation Church in Mount Sterling, Ohio, on Saturday, May 2. Comer is a cousin of Robinette, and the church was founded by Robinette in 2000. He was serving the church as its pastor at the time of his death. Robinette was posthumously awarded in September 2025 after he died attempting to save his two sons from burning on Jan. 23, 2024, at their home in Orient, Ohio.
Robinette, a 55-year-old pastor; his wife; and four of their children were trapped on the second floor of their two-story home, after a fire had broken out on the first floor and filled the upstairs with dense smoke. Robinette’s son, 14, woke his parents as fire spread up the stairwell to the second floor. Robinette helped his wife out of a bedroom window. As the 14-year-old moved to run back to his room to retrieve one of his brothers, Robinette told his son that he would go to get “the boys.” Robinette picked up the 14-year-old and pushed him through a bathroom window onto a first-floor roof. Robinette intercepted his 24-year-old daughter as he ran into a hallway and carried her to his bedroom to push her out through the window. Robinette then disappeared from the window and was not seen after that. He remained inside with his 10- and 17-year-old sons. All three died from smoke inhalation and were burned.
Andrea posted about the presentation of the medal on Instagram and remembered her husband’s bravery that night and throughout his entire life.
“Yesterday my husband Mark was honored for his bravery,” she said. “I’m thankful for my husband’s life. I’m thankful I got to be by his side for so many years. He was a hero that awful night, and really throughout his life,” she wrote.
