This is the AP story from Fri morning.

As the walls came tumbling down and tear gas filled the air, cult leader
David Koresh sprang into action. He left his third-floor bedroom and began
looking around the house, making sure women and children were secure and 
checking that everyone had their gas masks on properly. Within hours, the    
compound became an inferno. Nine Branch Davidians excaped.
   This is their story, gleaned from lawyers who spoke with six of them
who are jailed on charges that include conspiracy and murder. That day the 
six said a portable radio offered the only contact with the outside world    
since Koresh's right-hand man, Steve Schneider, ripped out the compounds's 
phone line after FBI agents called before dawn Monday saying this was the
cults last chance: Come out or prepare to get forced out.
    They kept their word. By dawn, tanks were battering the Mount Carmel
compound, punching for hours to creat holes for tear gas to enter. The BD
meanwhile proceeded with their daily routines. Strapped into gas masks, the
women did laundry. Others read Bibles in their rooms. The 17 children, all
under 10, remained by their mothers' sides. Still, it was hard to ignore what    
was happening around them. Each time a tank rammed the poorly-constructed building
it shook violently. Cult members dodges falling gypsum wallboard and doors.
Hundreds of gas canisters hurled in from the armored vehicles were filling
the air with noxious fumes. The flying canisters were more frightening than
the tanks. At least one man was hit in the face. The gas began filling the air,
driven by heavy gusts of wind coming through windows and the holes the tanks
made. Scattered throughout the house, the cult members made no efforts to
gather. Then the FBI sent in its biggest weapon -- a massive armored vehicle
headed for a chamber, lined with cinder blocks, where authorities hoped to 
find Koresh and Schneider and fire tear gas directly at them.
  Here the cult members' story diverges from the government's version. The
FBI says cult members set fires in three places. But each of the six cult
members, in separate discussions with lawyers, consistently gave versions
at odds with the FBI's account. They say the tank flattened a barrel of 
propane, spilling its contents. And as the tank thundered through the house,
it tipped over lit lanterns, spitting flames that ignited the propane and
other flammables. The home of used lumber, plywood, and wallboard tacked 
together with tar paper was vulnerable. The building erupted. Nine BD's
escaped jumping through windows and dashing through other openings. Others
died groping in the blackness.