Davidians Set Compound Ablaze, 2 Experts Tell Panel : Waco: Tapes and conversations recorded by the FBI, they say, point to the sect members igniting the fire.

Experts told a congressional panel Friday that the fire that leveled the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex., two years ago was deliberately set by members of the religious sect. The testimony came on the same day that a survivor of the inferno recalled vividly the death screams of his fellow Davidians.

Two experts who testified based their conclusions largely on videotapes and on their fire-scene investigation. The evidence, they said, is overwhelming that followers of sect leader David Koresh set their own living quarters on fire.

The conflagration on April 19, 1993, came after FBI-deployed tanks launched tear gas inside the living quarters in a failed attempt to force the Davidians to evacuate after a 51-day standoff.

Current and former government officials said Friday that the origin of the fire--the sect members themselves--provides another reason why Koresh alone should be considered responsible for the deaths of four federal agents and about 80 Davidians at Waco. Koresh died in the fire.

“The blame lies at the feet of David Koresh, not the President of the United States, not the attorney general, not the people at this table,” said then-Associate Atty. Gen. Webster L. Hubbell, a close friend of President Clinton and now about to enter federal prison for bilking clients of his former law firm.

Larry A. Potts, who was assistant director of the FBI criminal division throughout the siege, said: “Unfortunately, the objective of the FBI and the wishes of the country did not, and, ultimately, could not, prevail over the outcome chosen by David Koresh.”

In related testimony, the Army toxicologist whom Atty. Gen. Janet Reno relied on in her decision to approve the launch of CS tear gas into the compound reiterated his view that the substance posed no long-term health risk to the Davidian children or adults.

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“It is the safest and most effective alternative that we do know of” for dispersing crowds in riot-related circumstances, said the toxicologist, Harry Salem. The fire experts testified that the tear gas played no role in the inferno.

Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) who has led the defense in the hearings of the Clinton Administration’s handling of the tragedy, said that conversations secretly recorded by the FBI provide incontrovertible evidence that there was no government “conspiracy” to incinerate the Davidians. Transcripts of those tapes show that the Davidians repeatedly discussed pouring fuel and lighting at least one fire after the FBI began firing the tear gas.

“This idea that the fire came some other way, this idea that CS gas had anything to do with some kind of explosion unrelated to the fire being set, is wrong,” Schumer said, noting two passages from the tape transcripts: “I want a fire around the back” and “Spread the fire.”

James G. Quintiere, a fire-protection specialist who teaches at the University of Maryland and was hired as a consultant by the Justice Department, said he believes that the Branch Davidians started three separate blazes.

“For these separate fires to appear within minutes of each other is almost impossible without someone doing it.”

The officials’ version of the fire and other events at the compound was disputed by a sect member who escaped from the blaze.

Sitting at the same table as the fire experts, Clive J. Doyle, who is still a Branch Davidian, choked back tears as he recalled the events that day that left his daughter and 79 other sect members--including 19 children--dead.

Doyle, 54, who emerged from the living quarters with his hands badly burned, said that he did not know how the fire started. He said that many Davidians did not attempt to flee that final day for fear that “the FBI might open fire on us.”

Doyle became overwhelmed when he tried to recall hearing the screams that day, and connecting the faces with the agonized voices.

“I heard the voices of those behind me screaming. It kind of got to me,” Doyle said. “I recognized who they were.” Doyle was acquitted of murder charges stemming from the deaths of four federal agents who first tried to search the compound on Feb. 28, 1993.

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Doyle was never charged by authorities with helping to start the fire. But Paul C. Gray, one of the fire officials, testified Friday that he suspected Doyle had been involved because barbecue starter fluid that caught fire was found on his arms and hands. “His hands were not burnt, they were burning,” Gray said. “A big difference.”

Potts, Hubbell and former FBI Director William S. Sessions were questioned repeatedly by Republican committee members about the extent to which Clinton and Reno were involved in the decisions made at Waco.

Hubbell said that despite his closeness at the time to Clinton, the two did not discuss the Waco matter before the siege ended. The President was briefed by Reno on the decision to launch the tear gas one day before the action was taken, Hubbell said.

Hubbell appeared to shed new light on how Reno was persuaded April 17 to approve using the tear gas after declining to do so earlier. The key, Hubbell said, was assurances that he and Reno received from top military officials that use of the CS tear gas was safe.

“The military said [the Davidians] will come out of that building,” Hubbell said. “I mean, I had a general and a colonel both look me in the eye and say: ‘They can’t stay in that building. They will come out immediately.’ ”

Reno is now scheduled to testify Tuesday, in what would be the 10th and final day of the hearings.

Salem, the expert on CS tear gas, said Reno “was extremely sensitive to the risks. . . . In the final analysis, the question of the use of CS comes down to balancing the risks against the consequences--even the consequences of waiting. And that was a very tough decision that they had to make.”

Reno has said that she approved the tear-gas plan on the basis that after the gas was fired once, the FBI was to back off and allow the Davidians to evacuate. Under this scenario, more gas would be pumped in over the next 48 hours, with intervals allowed for continued evacuations.

However, after being fired at by the Davidians, the FBI launched all of the tear gas on hand in less than six hours.

Hubbell and Sessions also testified that FBI officials in Waco advised them in what would be the final days of the siege that a surrender proposal crafted by Koresh and his lawyer was nothing more than a delaying tactic.

The FBI’s top two officials at Waco, Jeffrey Jamar and Byron Sage, confirmed in testimony earlier this week that Jamar told Koresh’s lawyer on April 14, 1993, that he had “all the time it takes” to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the siege. Hubbell said that Sage apprised him of the surrender proposal, but attached no credence to it.

“He did not convey to me that he thought the plan would work,” Hubbell said. “In fact, he indicated to me that it wouldn’t, that the attorneys [for Koresh and an aide to Koresh] were being manipulated by Mr. Koresh.”

The committee’s co-chairman, Rep. Bill Zeliff (R-N.H.), signaled that the response by the FBI and the Justice Department to the surrender plan is bound to be a focus of further questioning.

“When and why was an eleventh-hour offer of surrender, an offer corroborated by the Texas Rangers and also confirmed by Koresh’s attorney in detail, rejected?” Zeliff asked.

Sessions, a former U.S. District judge in San Antonio, told the committee that he had suggested his returning to Texas to negotiate directly with Koresh. His idea, Sessions said, was rejected as “ridiculous and grandstanding” by Justice Department officials.

As for the inferno that engulfed the compound on April 19, 1993, Gray, of the Houston Fire Department, said that while the government may have made obvious errors during the initial raid and throughout the 51-day siege, the fire resulted from three separate blazes ignited by the Davidians.

“Somebody out there in the government screwed up big time but they didn’t start the fire,” Gray testified.