It could have been worse. After Dad left from checking on that, and was off to a doctor's appointment for my sister, Raymond (the neighbor) called back. There was something about needing the gas to be turned off (I have no idea what that's about, and neither did Mom) so Mom went off to let him in.

They both thought (because it was old, and they couldn't figure out how it worked) they were turning off the gas on the pilot light--Dad had done that already, so they turned it on. So if the gas had hit the flame, the house would have gone up, too.

The good news is it automatically turned itself off again right after they left. Dad hurried over and checked, and made sure.