I looked at your location. If on the northern end I think our geology has as much to do with these explosions as anything. Lots of rocks and lots of sink holes and small caverns under a lot of communities.
All it can take is more rain that usual to get the ground underneath disturbed causing rocks to move etc. Too a lot of the lines despite codes and laws specifying depths etc simply do not get buried deep enough originally.
My home is all electric and NG isn't available in my neighborhood nor will it likely be in my lifetime. I'm in the sticks. Gas is cheaper but for my families safety I prefer all electric. Then the biggest explosion danger usually is the hot water heater. Keep it maintained properly and they're reasonably safe. But I've seen what they can do when some moron caps off the pressure relief valve and the thermostat sticks closed. I would never set a thermostat much above 130 degrees. I've read threads in here where some peak them out. Not a good idea and a real bad scalding danger also.
My neighborhood at the time was a DC suburb, Annandale.
There was some public works digging going on (maybe some storm sewer work, I don’t remember exactly), and they damaged a gas main in the street, and that damage went undetected. The leaking gas seeped into the basements of the two houses that were leveled, was most likely ignited by a furnace pilot light.