In article <C5qyuG.LuF@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, garrod@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (David Garrod) writes:  |>In article <1993Apr19.132847.23755@hemlock.cray.com>, rja@mahogany126.cray.com (Russ Anderson) writes: |>>  |>> Looks like the Branch Davidian is out of buisness. |>>  |>> This morning the "police" (FBI/BATF) started ramming |>> holes in the walls of buildings and shooting in tear gas. |>> Shortly there after, a fire began that has now engulfed  |>> all the buildings in the compound.  Only one Brach Davidian |>> member has come out. |>>  |>> Authorities are saying that Branch Davidian members were |>> seen starting the fire.  It looks like there will no |>> witnesses to dispute that claim. |>>  |>> There were ~90 adults an 19 children in the compound. |>>  |> |> |>Funny, how the fire seemed to start on the right hand side of the  |>building just next to where a tank was backing away, though! |> |>Probably just a coincidence.  Watch the videotape carefully, the CNN coverage was fairly decisive.  The first fire starts in the Tower, this is three storeys high and there is a flag to the right of it on the picture. The second fire starts  in another tower which is similar to the first only two storeys high. The flag is on the left in the camera picture that shows this fire starting.  Thus the camera pictures cleraly show the fire starting at two separate locations. The FBI report a third. I was not able to verify it from the videotape however someone else identified a fire shown to be starting behind the small tower in the second (flag on left) camera angle.   The flames coming out of the building are yellow/orange. This is the normal colour for carbon compounds burning. The flames were those of a  solid or confined liquid burning, not of a gas exploding.    The explosion that occurs mid way along the building is certainly not an explosive though. The cloud itself is on fire. This would seem to be most likely to be some sort of fuel oil store exploding rather than the explosion of a magazine.   |>Funny, how considering there was to be a great cache of explosives |>ammunition, etc in the compound, I did not see any series of explosions.  Depends entirely on how they were distributed. You would not be able to identify ammunition rounds going off from video camera coverage from a mile away. If and when the FBI release pictures from cmeras on the armoured vehicles (which presumably exist) it might be possible to  get a clearer picture.   If anyone expects to see explosions hollywood style aka Rambo movies then remember that in real life cars do not burst into flames when going over cliffs.  Just about the most you could expect would be to see the grenades going off. Since the building was designed to be blast proof to some extent it would be difficult to distinguish the grenades going off from the collapse of the building due to the fire.   |>And, oops, the automatic weapons were probably burnt up in the fire |>with the other witnesses.  Paranoia.  |>Unless, I see videotapes showing the davidians starting the fire, I |>guess I may have a problem believing the feds saying they saw them |>doing it, but couldn`t or didn`t manage to tape it.  They have |>been taping everything else.  You wouldn't beleive the FBI if they showed you a picture of Koresh himself setting light to the place. Your mindset is such that you are simply unable to accept as true anything that might suggest that a group of heavily armed weapons fanatics might indeed be in the wrong.  The gun lobby can't accept that the B-D set light to the place because that would mean that Koreh had murdered 17 children, that would mean that their taking his account of the murder of 4 BATF agents would be even less credible than it was to start with.  Koresh had 51 days to come out with his hands up and face a fair trial.  Instead he ordered the murder of everyone in the place.