IT WAS NOON —AND LUNCHTIME. Armando Jimenez and Jesús Chavez took off their hard hats and sat down at a picnic table in Memorial Park in Marin County, California. The park is bordered on three sides by a playground, a parking lot and a baseball field. If a fire threatened it, it would likely approach from the fourth side, a steep hill that was, until recently, covered with flammable brush.
Thanks to Jimenez, Chavez and
