The other companies in the area that supply heat utilities
are hearing from some of the households in the vicinity --

these are families whose houses were not damaged,
but their heat has been cut off since the gas explosions.

It's ironic. Many older residences thereabouts
began, of course, with coal heat and wood-burning fireplaces,
a century ago, or longer.

Then, conventionally, the conversion was made in these houses
from coal to home-heating oil in boilers in the basement.

More recently, newer homes have utilities with either
natural gas, or electricity, taking care of residential heat.
Homes that are not so new, however,
started out with home heating oil, then converted to natural gas.

And now, the home-heating-oil companies
are seeing a remarkable increase
in inquiries from customers who used to have natural gas heat
and are considering home-heating oil again...