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ByDonThompson TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO With wild- fire danger peaking, Cali- fornia's fleet of 22 air tank- ers was cleared Friday to return to the skies after in- vestigators found no evi- dence that a fatal crash of one of the tankers earlier in the week was the result of faulty equipment. The return of the work- horse twin-engine S-2T air- planes came as firefighters were battling blazes east of Sacramento and at Yosem- ite National Park, where a veteran pilot was killed Tuesday when his air tanker crashed. None of the reactivated air tankers was immedi- ately dispatched to the fire along Interstate 80 about 40 miles northeast of Sac- ramento, and the aircraft likely won't be dispatched to the Yosemite blaze, Cal- ifornia Department of For- estry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant said. Still, officials said it was good to have them back dur- ing the fire season that has been extended by drought and unseasonably hot, dry weather. "Obviously, it's critical for us to get these (planes) back up in the air," CalFire Direc- tor Ken Pimlott said. The state was fortunate that air tankers under con- tract to the federal govern- ment were able to step in to fill the gap because there currently are few fires else- where in the nation, he said. CalFire lifted the safety stand-down for the state airplanes after federal in- vestigators found the tanker crash did not involve struc- tural failure or aging air- craft issues, Pimlott said. T he planes were grounded after pilot Geof- frey "Craig" Hunt died when his plane smashed into a steep canyon wall while dropping retardant on a fire near Yosemite's west entrance. Hunt was making his second drop of the day and did not make any radio calls before the crash, said Josh Cawthra, an aviation accident investigator with the National Transporta- tion Safety Board. "We are comfortable to say at this point we do not see anything that leads us to any mechanical-related issues with the accident se- quence," he said. The crash investigation will take months, but at least initially, there were no indications of turbulence, and visibility was good at the time of the crash, Cawthra said. Preliminary indications are that the left wing struck something and came off the airplane, officials said. The finding won't be certain un- til investigators find paint transfer or other evidence of the wing's initial im- pact, CalFire's chief pilot Bill Payne said. Hunt, 62, of San Jose was a 13-year veteran pilot of DynCorp International. Like the other pilots, he flew the air tanker under a con- tract with the state. Berlant said none of the reactivated tankers was immediately called up to the fire northeast of Sacra- mento because of minimal fire activity. The blaze was threat- ening 1,000 structures — many of the homes under mandatory evacuation or- ders — around the Placer County community of Ap- plegate. It was holding steady at 420 acres with containment at 30 percent. The fire in Yosemite Na- tional Park, meanwhile, was at 311 acres and 25 percent contained. A ma- jor route into the park re- mained closed, and there were power outages in Yo- semite Valley. WILDFIRE Californiareactivatesfirefightingairplanes TONYHALLAS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A firefighting aircra drops retardant over a wildfire along a hillside near Foresthill. By Darlene Superville The Associated Press SAN DIMAS, CALIFORNIA President Barack Obama on Friday spared from fu- ture development nearly 350,000 acres of land within the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, a move that cheered environ- mentalists but sparked new criticism of Obama's will- ingness to use his executive authority. Obama used his author- ity under the federal Antiq- uities Act to turn the area into a national monument. He cited President Abraham Lincoln's decision to pre- serve parts of the Yosem- ite Valley without ever hav- ing seen it as inspiration for steps he's taken in office to preserve more than 3 mil- lion acres of public lands. "And I'm not finished," Obama said, making the announcement at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, where picturesque views of the San Gabriel Moun- tains under blue sky pro- vided the backdrop. "We are looking at additional opportunities to preserve federal lands and waters, and I'll continue to do so, especially where communi- ties are speaking up." Supporters say Obama's move will provide recre- ational opportunities for millions of people, partic- ularly minorities and chil- dren, who live in Los An- geles County. The county is one of the most disadvan- taged areas in terms of ac- cess to open space, accord- ing to the White House. "For Angelenos, the San Gabriels are like having Yel- lowstone next door," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Now the 17 million people living in Greater Los Angeles can find wild beauty right in their backyards." Local officials and some lawmakers faulted Obama for acting without support from Congress or the pub- lic, but Obama said officials heard from a lot of urban families who said this area constituted their only out- door space and that their children didn't have parks. Officials also expressed concerns about potential use restrictions on the hundreds of thousands of acres that will be forever preserved. "Once again this admin- istration is taking unilat- eral action without con- gressional or public input," said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "I strongly support multiple use of our national forests and other public lands, but this decision severely lim- its usage." 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