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During the early stages of a wildfire, natural disaster, or battle, the information about the incident may be sparse, incorrect, or frequently changing as various sources provide the information as the incident evolves. The providers of the data, reporters or government personnel, may be viewing it from different vantage points, making assumptions, or they may filter it based on their own agenda.

The raid on the Osama bin Laden compound on Sunday is no exception. Over the course of the first two days, a broad range of highly variable information was distributed. Here is a sampling of what was reported by eight major media outlets. We gathered data for four categories: the number of helicopters involved, the number of U.S. soldiers involved, the height of the walls around bin Laden’s compound, and the description of the problem that led to the disabling of one of the helicopters.

*On May 3, MSNBC had an interesting and detailed explanation for the cause of the disabled or crashed helicopter. Basically, from their account, there was a density-altitude problem, but they did not use that term. The temperature was 17 degrees warmer than expected. The warmer, less dense air coupled with the high altitude and heavy load made it impossible for the helicopter to hover while the soldiers rappelled, and the aircraft made a hard landing. From other accounts, the helicopter may have hit its tail rotor on an object as it descended towards a hard landing, breaking it off. The soldiers later blew up the helicopter so that its sensitive electronic gear would not fall into the wrong hands. Fox news had a similar account.

Here is the report from MSNBC:

In Sunday’s mission, two Black Hawk helicopters were supposed to hover over the bin Laden compound and allow Navy special operations forces to rappel to the ground.

When one of the helicopters ran into problems — including temperatures that were 17 degrees higher than expected — and had to land abruptly, two Boeing Chinook helicopters were called in to help get the U.S. troops out, said one U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One Chinook would have sufficed, but a second one was sent in case that helicopter also ran into trouble, said Pike.

One retired military helicopter pilot said the Black Hawk likely ran into an issue called “settling with power,” when high temperatures, a heavy load and high altitudes force an unplanned landing. “Those conditions just suck the RPM out of the rotor,” he said.

Of course, all of these “facts” may be proven wrong in the weeks, months, and years to come.

Hundreds of fires have been burning in Northern Ireleand over the last few days. Unseasonably dry weather, very strong winds, and a plague of arsonists have contributed to a situation that is unprecedented for that part of the world. A sampling of the reports includes descriptions such as “nine square miles” in the Torridon mountains, one fire that has burned 300 square kilometers (74,000 acres) west of Donegal, and 201 gorse fires on Sunday, and 282 gorse fires on Monday.

The reporter below is dressed differently than reporters covering wildfires in the western United States, where they usually wear fire resistant clothing such as Nomex. But he gives a very interesting video report; check it out. Unfortunately, it can’t be embedded here.

Here is another video, the first few minutes of which are very interesting.

Seasoned wildland firefighters will enjoy this, from Irishtimes.com, a “new” way of fighting fire:

THE “MINIMAL” damage caused by gorse fires to property and forest in parts of the Cooley Peninsula was in part credited to a new way of tackling such fires by the senior assistant chief fire officer in Louth, Joe Lumsden.

The new method saw the fire service working with the Civil Defence and Coillte to create firebreaks. This involved cutting down some trees in advance of any fires to create openings in forest areas, and then soaking those pathways with water.

If a fire hits one of these firebreaks, it cannot continue any further, which both reduces the fire’s trajectory and makes the environment safer for firefighters.

Crews from Louth were trained in the new method by fire crews from the UK.

Firefighters have made unprecedented progress on the Bull fire, which started in Mexico on Friday April 29, and soon crossed the international border coming to within a few miles of Nogales, Arizona. A news release issued Saturday by the Coronado National Forest said the fire had burned a total of 23,000 acres, with 11,000 of those acres being on the U.S. side of the border. Sunday’s 8:00 a.m. news release from the same source reduced that acreage to an “estimated” 8,700. It did not specify the number of acres burned on each side of the border. (An update on InciWeb Sunday night clarified that a total of 24,000 acres had burned, with 9,711 acres being blackened on the U.S. side of the border.)

Here is more information from the Sunday news release:

General Information:

The Eastern Arizona Type 2 Incident Management Team assumed command of the Bull Fire at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The Incident Command Post is located at Calabases County Park, Santa Cruz County, AZ.   The fire is currently burning on lands administered by the Coronado National Forest within the Nogales Ranger District.

Fire Activity: Extreme fire behavior and long-range spotting during gusty wind conditions have been observed. Currently the fire is backing down slope into the wind and wind-driven fire in some drainages is also occurring. Flame lengths are 5 to 10 feet.

Significant Events: Personnel who worked through the night on Friday, conducted burnout operations halting the fire’s northern movement. Today, firefighters will continue to hold and secure firelines, extinguish hot spots close to the edge of the fireline and respond to new fire starts in the area.

The map of the Bull fire, below, shows heat detected by satellites on May 1, 2011.