Wichita ? ONEOK will pay an undisclosed sum to settle a lawsuit arising from last year’s deadly natural gas explosions in Hutchinson.

The Tulsa, Okla.-based company reached the settlement last week with the heirs of John and Mary Ann Hahn, who died of their injuries after a gas explosion in the trailer park where they lived. Also named in the suit were two companies ONEOK owns Kansas Gas Service and Mid-Continent Market Center. The parties didn’t announce the agreement until Friday.

A Sedgwick County district judge was to have ruled next week on a request to remove a cap on punitive damages.

The settlement requires the amount to be kept confidential, said a Hahn family attorney, Mark Biberstein. Family members declined comment.

The Hahns died just days after a Jan. 18, 2001, gas explosion destroyed their mobile home in the Big Chief Mobile Home Park.

Last month, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment assessed a fine of $180,000, the largest allowed by state law, in connection with the Hutchinson gas explosions.

In a prepared statement, Biberstein blamed the gas company.

“Through their lawsuit, the Hahns were able to learn what went wrong within ONEOK to cause the tragedy in Hutchinson,” the statement said. “Their hope is that the public attention brought to this case will motivate ONEOK to place safety over profit.”

ONEOK, however, had maintained that there was no evidence linking the loss of natural gas from an underground storage cavern it owns with the explosion seven miles away.