The Waco siege – 30 years on

Thirty years ago on 19 April, 1993, a huge fire engulfed the Mount Carmel Center compound 13 miles outside of Waco, Texas, ending a 51-day stand-off between the government agents and a fringe-religious group, the Branch Davidians.

The shoot-out between the group and the authorities was the “largest gunfight on American soil since the civil war”, said The Guardian, and the resulting stand-off was a “diplomatic tightrope walk played out on a public stage”. After the fire burned out, more than 80 people including children and federal agents had died.

The saga began after authorities were tipped off that the group, led by 33-year-old David Koresh, was hoarding weapons to prepare for its core belief that the “apocalypse was imminent”, said The Washington Post. When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) obtained a warrant to search the premises and arrest Koresh, he “refused to submit”, resulting in the “weeks-long stand-off”.

After the initial gunfight, the group barricaded itself in the compound where “about 130 of them lived”, said Time. According to records, “Koresh had 117 conversations with FBI negotiators that lasted about 60 hours”, and the agency was able to “secure the release of 44 people” before “Koresh delayed his surrender, and tensions heightened”.

That resulted in “more than 600 federal agents” moving in on the compound on April 19, eventually launching tear gas into the building to force members out. In the resulting chaos, a fire broke out, killing everyone but nine people inside.

Many Americans had watched daily coverage of the stand-off, and were “horrified at the loss of life during a government operation”, said PBS. The cause of the fire remains “highly contested”. The Department of Justice, while acknowledging “the FBI used incendiary tear gas canisters”, concluded that the Branch Davidians members had started the fire themselves, something surviving members denied.