‘Start the Fire?’ a Davidian Asks on 1993 Tapes

WACO, Texas — Unidentified Branch Davidians were heard asking, “Start the fire?” and “Should we light the fire?” in tapes played Monday in the $675-million wrongful-death trial against the government.

U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, a panel of five jurors and attorneys listened to nearly an hour of mostly unintelligible conversations leading up to April 19, 1993, when the compound burned to the ground.

Surviving Branch Davidians and family members contend in the lawsuit that the government used excessive force against the sect and contributed to the blaze.

“Let’s keep that fire going,” a male voice said on the final day of the siege as tanks rumbled in the background.

Federal agents were heard warning sect members of an impending tear-gassing operation and urging them to surrender the morning of April 19. On the same excerpt, a male voice was heard asking, “Should we light the package?”

A day earlier, an unidentified male said, “You always wanted to be a charcoal briquette. . . . There’s nothing like a good fire to bring us to the earth.”