Most people want "truth" in reporting. I am wondering if this is a slight misdirection by the authorities - a "boiler explosion" may upset people more than natural gas explosion would.
Sort of like the State Police reporting accident number expectations for a "holiday" but no one seems to make a big deal of the fact that there are about two auto accidents a day per state per year on average.
You could even say that the Roswell NM alien "hoax" in 1946/7 could have been reported as a weather balloon to keep fears of war from panicing people. It was less than 10 years after "The War of the Worlds" paniced so many.
Unfortunately that required trust in Government.
Doug vV