The payment from the county's insurer was the maximum the victims and families could get under state law.
The two sides agreed to the settlement during a hearing Thursday, although some family members said additional civil claims were possible and some said they would continue to push for criminal charges.
``This is the very last thing I could do for my son to make sure justice is served,'' said Mark Thomas, whose son, Mark Halen Thomas, 20, died in the May 3 fire. ``If no one in the county was guilty, I don't think they would have paid anything.''
Thomas' son had been serving a 15-weekend sentence for driving with a revoked license when he died in the fire. Others in the jail were serving time for misdemeanors or awaiting trial.
Scott MacLatchie, an attorney who represented the county, said the agreement includes no admission of guilt by county officials, the sheriff or jail employees.
``This was a tragic event with eight souls that were lost and nine survivors,'' he said. The settlement ``was a wise business and economic decision and somewhat of a moral decision.''
Superior Court Judge Marlene Hyatt approved the settlement, which included a $50,000 immediate payment, minus some fees, to the 17 families and survivors. An arbitration panel will determine the distribution of the remaining money.
Investigators have said the fire was caused by cardboard that ignited when it stacked up against a heater in a storage room that had been added to the jail in 1965.
A report released in November by the state Labor Department said state and county inspectors failed to detect ``serious safety deficiencies,'' including the storage room built without firewall and with a door, roof and shingles that were combustible. The report also said inspectors from the Department of Health and Human Services _ which inspects jails twice a year _ failed to detect the safety violations on repeated occasions.
District Attorney Tom Rusher announced in November that no criminal charges would be filed in the fire, clearing both Sheriff Ken Fox and the jailer on duty at the time.
