That happened to two houses about a half mile away in our neighborhood when I was a kid. I think three people died. Two good-sized suburban houses were leveled by the explosion, and a third damaged so badly it had to be leveled, too.
I was at school, but my parents happened to be home, and they said insulation rained out of the sky like snow. And, again, we were about a half mile away.
I’ve read that if the trapped natural gas inside a house detonates, you have what amounts to a fuel-air explosive (thermobaric) bomb. Small wonder why the explosion you described effectively destroyed three houses.
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.