They used incendiary tear gas (military tear gas) on a structure separate from the house. This is not a new admission and was made a number of years ago. It was still later than the imediate event but I believe it is in the report by Sen Danforth? There is nothing new here.
Here's the gist of what happened IIRC:
Koresh (a nutball who turned out NOT to be the second coming) had a number of weapons that scared the ATF. The ATF foolishly and poorly executed a search warrant and their foolishness resulted in the deaths ARF agents.
Koresh started the standoff. The FBI HRT took command and borrowed military equipment including both incendiary tear gas and the non-incendiary tear gas used by law enforcemement. The incendiary tear gas was used on some structures away from the main house. They were not used on the primary residence.
When the tank inserted the gas, Koresh's followers ignited the house. The strong winds and sniper fire prevented the fire department from being able to fight the fire and the poeple in the house dies.
This is basically the story. There are lots of other conspiracy minded theories but I haven't heard any credible ones.
(Putting on flame retardant suit now).
Actually the fbi stopped the fire department at gunpoint from responding to the fire. They had to sit at the checkpoint and watch the buildings burn.
What evidence do you have that suggests sniper fire came from within the church during the final assault. I have never seen any. I don't ever recall that even being suggested. Only lots of "glint" from the surrounding area.
The FBI adamantly said they were not used anywhere until the Texas Rangers found evidence.
So you don't really know that they were not used on the main house -- you only know that evidence was not found in that location.
Tell us what you think about the unusual coincidence of 3 of the 4 BATF agents killed ---had previously served on Clinton's security staff.
Clinton mentioned them in some remarks later.