Six survivors of the inferno at the doomsday cult compound say the fire was started by an FBI tank that crushed a propane container and knocked over several lanterns, their lawyers say.
One survivor said through his lawyer that the scores of people who died in the blaze didn't commit suicide, as the FBI said, but were caught in a fire that moved so fast they couldn't get out."Those people didn't have the ability to find their way out, they couldn't see to get out," said Dick Kettler, an attorney for Renos Avraam of Britain.
Cult leader David Koresh and 85 followers were believed to have died Monday. The FBI said cultists were seen setting the fire.
The Justice Department says that FBI snipers outside the compound saw at least two cult members setting fires. One of the survivors told agents that as he was leaving the compound he heard someone shout "The fire's been lit, the fire's been lit," said spokesman Carl Stern in Washington.
Heat-detecting equipment in an FBI helicopter above the compound recorded hot spots in three separate locations shortly before flames began shooting out of the building, Stern said.
But attorney Jack Zimmermann, who said he spoke Wednesday with four survivors and attorneys for two others, said all six say an armored vehicle that smashed through a wall hit the propane tank and started the fire.
"One person heard someone screaming from the area where the tank was, `A tank has come in! There's a fire started!' " he said.
The nine who escaped left through doors or jumped out first- and second-story windows. One person broke an ankle.
"They said the smoke was so black that one of them said within seconds he couldn't see where he was," Zimmerman said. "People were trapped. The building was falling down, the damn tanks had just destroyed the structure and nobody knew where they were because the ceiling had fallen in."
During the hours before the fire, when the building was under assault, Zimmerman said, cult members donned gas masks and went about their normal routines while Koresh checked to see if everyone was all right.
"It bothered them, but it didn't cause pandemonium," he said of the tear gas. "People remained calm."
By Wednesday investigators had spotted about 40 bodies in the smoking ruins, and removal was to begin Thursday. Authorities were slow to remove the bodies for fear of booby traps or exploding ammunition in the still-warm debris.
There was no immediate word that Koresh's body had been found.
The charred bodies were "generally distributed throughout the rubble," showing no signs of the group being huddled together, said Chuck McDonald, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
"It's a very gruesome scene," said Mike Cox, another spokesman for the agency.
Investigators said that at least three victims were found with recent gunshot wounds but that it wasn't clear if they had committed suicide, were shot by fellow cultists or were hit by ammunition exploding in the fire.
The FBI said it fired no shots during the final assault.
The 51-day standoff began with a weapons raid Feb. 28 that left four federal agents and several cultists dead. The fire has greatly complicated the cases of those facing charges because it destroyed much of the evidence.
"It's going to be difficult because there's no walls left," McDonald said.