‘The families live this every day’: Thirty years on, the Britons who died in the Waco siege

The 1993 Texas raid that led to the deaths of 86 people shocked the world. Less well known is that 23 British people were among the dead. James Rampton speaks to families, survivors and the maker of a new documentary telling their story

Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh (Steve Earley/Waco Tribune Herald/ITVX)

Gail Monbelly is wiping away her tears with a handkerchief.

She is recalling the shocking moment in 1993 when the world looked on in horror as flames from an apocalyptic fire ripped through the compound at the Waco siege, during which Gail’s 31-year-old sister Bernadette lost her life.

Monbelly remembers: “I had come home from work and the phone rang. My mum was on the other end of the phone, and she said, ‘There’s been a fire’. I said, ‘What fire?’, and my mum said, ‘Just put the TV on.’ And she hung up on me.