Deer Canyon Preserve

Deer Canyon Update: Incident Commander Identified, Acting Undersheriff Says Residents May Move Freely

Todd Brogowski

21 Jun 2026 • 2 min read

Deer Canyon Preserve - Todd Brogowski/Mountainair Dispatch

Mike Myrick has been identified as the Type 3 incident commander for the Deer Canyon Fire, according to TCSO acting Undersheriff Ron Saavedra. Saavedra said his department's point of contact within incident command has been the operations section chief, whom Saavedra identified only as "Meister."

A Type 3 incident, in the federal classification system used for wildfires, generally indicates a fire requiring regional or multi-agency coordination beyond what local resources alone can manage, falling between smaller Type 4 and 5 incidents and the largest Type 1 and 2 fires that draw national-level response teams.

Saavedra said Sunday afternoon that the escort requirement described earlier by EMNRD's Veilleux applies only to media, not to residents, and that residents of Deer Canyon Preserve are now permitted to move freely in and out of the area.

Asked about the two residents who told the Dispatch they were denied access earlier Sunday, with one reporting he was threatened with trespass charges, Saavedra said that should not have happened.

"That should not be accurate," Saavedra said. "My deputies have directives from me that the residents, the people that live there, are permitted to go to their homes. We cannot stop them from going to their homes."

Saavedra attributed the inconsistency to rapidly shifting orders over the fire's first 24 hours, as the area moved from a mandatory evacuation Saturday into Sunday morning to a more open status Sunday afternoon, as fire behavior became more controlled. He said he has been fielding the fire response by phone while simultaneously responding to other calls in the field, including a separate highway accident, and that he was not on scene himself.

Saavedra's account directly contradicts Veilleux's earlier statement that the escort requirement applied to non-residents and first responders alike, with no exemption described for residents. The Dispatch has asked Veilleux whether the policy has changed since her earlier statement, or whether this reflects differing accounts between agencies, and will update this story when a response is received.

Mayor Nieto, asked by email about the escort policy, said he was not aware of one. "I'm not sure of an escort policy for TCSO. That is something you'd have to contact TCSO about," Nieto wrote. He added that the Town of Mountainair has strongly advised residents not to return until officials issue an all-clear.

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