Firefighters Tee Off to Support 2 of Their Own : Thousand Oaks: The nearby inferno is on the minds of those at a golf benefit held to raise funds for injured colleagues.

While thousands of firefighters battled brush fires Wednesday, a few dozen of their brethren spent the day on the Los Robles Golf Course, seemingly far removed from the inferno less than a mile from the tranquil links.

But the fires, visible from just about every place in Thousand Oaks except the golf course, were on everyone’s mind. And the blistered face and body of one of them, 19-year-old Hector (Gabe) Larios of Chino Hills, was a grim reminder to all of the daily danger of a firefighter’s job.

The firefighters on the greens--far fewer than expected--had been planning this golf outing for weeks as a way to show support for Larios and Christopher Barth, 25, of Seal Beach. The two men were badly burned in an Aug. 20 brush fire in Altadena in which two men were killed. Barth remains in the hospital.

“The golf is irrelevant,” said Los Angeles County Firefighter Glenn Taulbee, 44, of Victorville. “To me, this is a time to come together to show support. Death or serious injury is a reality in this job.”

The danger of being a firefighter was embodied in Larios’ ravaged face, which was covered by a protective plastic mask with cutout holes for his eyes, nose and mouth.

While Larios described the brush fire that left him with third-degree burns over 42% of his body, his fellow firefighters repeatedly interrupted him, simply to shake his hand and offer best wishes.

“The Fire Department is like a family,” said Larios from his perch on a golf cart. “It’s amazing how much support they have given me. I just wish I was back firefighting. I love to do it.”

Bob Ramstead, a Malibu firefighter and Thousand Oaks resident who organized the golf tournament, said 168 people had signed up to play and “we turned people away.”

Ramstead said the event was expected to raise $25,000 to $30,000, even though many of the firefighters who had planned to attend had to cancel.

“All our staff, fire chiefs, deputies, video people, are out fighting the brush fires,” Ramstead said. “There’s an irony in that, I guess.”

Most of the firefighters who did make it to the links were less concerned with irony than they were with their friends on the front lines. A pall fell over the 10th tee when one firefighter announced that three men may have been injured fighting brush fires Wednesday.

“It’s unfortunate,” Taulbee said. “Your job involves a certain amount of risk. You can’t call every shot. Some things happen that you just can’t call.”

Like Taulbee, most of the firefighters on the golf course expected to be in the thick of the blazes within days, if not hours.

“They’ve recalled a lot of people,” Bob Dobratz of Castaic said. “And they know where I am if they need me.”