Hutchinson ? Eleven businesses and four families are plaintiffs in a series of new lawsuits filed in the past month over the natural gas explosions two years ago at Hutchinson.

The suits filed in Reno County District Court have a common theme — that Kansas Gas Service, ONEOK and Mid-Continent Market Center operated the Yaggy storage field with disregard for safety concerns.

They say that led to the leak of almost 150 million cubic feet of natural gas that made its way underground into Hutchinson in January 2001, causing explosions that destroyed two downtown businesses and killed two people at a mobile home park.

At midweek, none of the suits had drawn official responses from attorneys for the three defendants. But in earlier legal actions they have denied any disregard for safety.

Andrea Chancellor, a ONEOK spokeswoman in Tulsa, Okla., said the company had no comment on the new lawsuits.