I've never heard of "mini gas leaks" that are supposed to be fine until I've seen this thread. Every gas leak that's reported here must be fixed. Gas-related explosions still happen, I'd say it's 50:50 people messing with gas piping and people attempting suicide.
I did a project on this some time ago. Columbia gas was one of the worst offenders for sheer volume of leaks. Not only is it normal to leave leaks unfixed, frequently they disappear from the public record without any recorded nearby fixes.
It'd be interesting to see whether there's a correlation between explosion and leak location.
I'm in Michigan, with DTE Energy gas service. I had an experience a decade ago where they came to the door and informed me that the line needed to be replaced due to a leak. That made me pretty worried, but their nonchalant attitude seemed to indicate that it wasn't a big deal. Turns out (if I understood and remember it properly) that it was a small leak that was known about for some time—it was probably detected by a vehicle that drives around with sensors mapping out leaks.
Both that house and the one I own now are over 100 years old. The water, sewer, and gas lines are, AFAIK, original.
I've never heard of "mini gas leaks" that are supposed to be fine until I've seen this thread. Every gas leak that's reported here must be fixed. Gas-related explosions still happen, I'd say it's 50:50 people messing with gas piping and people attempting suicide.