The Waco Siege (also known as the Waco Massacre) began on February 28, 1993 when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located nine miles (14 km) east-northeast of Waco, Texas. An exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths of four agents and six followers of David Koresh. A subsequent 51-day siege by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended on April 19 when fire destroyed the compound.

Seventy-six people (24 of them British nationals) died in the fire, including more than 20 children and two pregnant women, along with Davidian leader Vernon Wayne Howell, better known as David Koresh. The Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists (also known as "The Branch") are a Protestant sect that originated in 1955 from a schism in the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists ("Davidians"), a reform movement that began within the Seventh-day Adventist Church ("SDA") around 1930. As the group gained members, the leadership moved the church to a hilltop several miles west of Waco, which they named Mount Carmel, after a mountain on Israel mentioned in Joshua 19:26 in the Bible's Old Testament.

A few years later, they moved again to a much larger site east of the city. In 1959 Florence Houteff (widow of founder Victor Houteff) announced that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was about to take place, and members were told to gather at the center to await this event. Many built houses, others stayed in tents, trucks or buses, and most sold their possessions.

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