Yes, my stove top does use igniters that make a loud clicking sound. I don’t think that is what happened. Obviously the igniter makes a spark. Those sparks have never been visible before. I have the igniter from a grill. The sound is distinctive. The spark is small and would not cause the bright flash I saw out of the corner of my eye.
Thanks, though
The only scenario I can imagine even though the gas company picked up no leak is where you have the tiniest gas leak and the air is not moving. A mouse scurries across a vinyl floor building up static and then jumps on the grounded gas pipe right where it goes through the wall because thats where his hole is.
I find many problems with that.
First, there was a leak big enough to cause a visible and audible explosions but I didn’t smell any gas at all? When we were moving stuff in, there wasa leak big enough to smell. That leak caused no explosions.
Second, if there was a leak big enough to cause audible and visible explosions why didn’t the workers detect it?
Finally, while the first whatver it was happened near the stove, the second happened across the room and several feet to the left. Your hypothesis fails to address or explain this.
Acknowledging that there’s no gas smell, I figured an extra question to rule out a possible other source - hot water heaters. I know efficient electrical heaters are the rage, but does your apartment have a dedicated heater, share a communal one, and if so, is it gas or electric?
I mean, I don’t know the full structure of your building (multiple floors or the like) but I could imagine an intermittent leak from another renter moving up or down along shared ventilation, which would leave nothing detectable in your apartment after the event burned off any buildup.
And as they’ve been largely ignoring your requests for repairs, it seems plausible that there are other faulty appliances and the like elsewhere.
Of course, NONE of that may apply, but that’s what came to mind as we’re all brainstorming.
I do not know what the water heater situation. It is a few apartments on each floor over (I can’t remember if it is four or five floors). I suspect there are several water heaters based on the following-
The shower has, since I moved in during October, always taken 60 to 120 seconds to get warm enough to shower in.
The hot water knob on the bathroom sink generally produces only very cold water. Sometimes letting it run for a while will produce warm to occasionally scaling water. Sometimes it just stays cold.
The kitchen sink produces fairly cool water. I have not needed to get hot water from it.
I’ll follow the slight ‘reach’ with @ParallelLines enough to say that the water staying cold could result from a gas water heater with an intermittently failing/operating pilot light or igniter.
But – under normal circumstances – more would have to be wrong in order for that gas water heater to be leaking any significant quantity of gas.
A working thermocouple should shut off the gas quickly if no flame is detected, so we’d be talking about more than one component failing.
Maybe not likely, but theoretically possible.
Something has to explain why you might occasionally have no hot water. Whether or not it’s connected to your OP situation … who knows.
We’d also be talking about a possible intermittent problem. Without checking at the source – in this case, a gas-fired boiler or water heater – it could easily evade detection in your unit.
But there would also have to be a path for that gas to get from the source to your unit.
Natural gas is lighter than air, so it theoretically could get from a basement mechanical room to a higher floor.
I think we’re reaching here, but …
Maybe for my own curiosity as much as anything else …
When there’s no hot water at the bathroom sink, have you – by any chance – tried to get hot water from another source – say, the shower??
For many people, a shower happens around a usual time, whereas using the sink is probably commonly a ‘periodically, throughout the day’ thing, so I’m not sure that being out of hot water likely explains this situation 
I am sorry, I thought they were both close to the stove Would you describe the explosion as a boom? Pop? crack? The source of ignition is also a question.
No, I haven’t felt the need.
As I have said, it was definitely a loud POP.
Considering that the flame I saw seemed to appear in mid air, I have no clue what caused whatever flammabe thing it was to ignite.
I guess my thinking (which you’ve already ruled out, but just for completeness) is that it is your responsibility as a tenant, and the landlord’s responsibility as a landlord, to make sure that the appliances are working and that the space is vermin-free. As a tenant, all you have to do is be clean, not break stuff, and notify your landlord if there’s a problem. You’ve clearly done that. As a landlord, they need to maintain their property and its fixtures, and deal with problems like vermin. They’ve clearly not done that.
My issue is that I don’t understand accepting that status quo, particularly with there a mystery flame that has appeared once or twice. But it’s not my life, and all I can do is express concerns.
It’s The Printer!
A few minutes ago, there was a third event. This was not so much a POP sound. I don’t know how to descirbe it. I suspect it may have been the sound of a capacitor bursting. I am not sure. The sound was accompanied by another burst or pale, bright orange flame. The flame was clearly coming from inside the printer.
To be safe, I unplugged the power cable from the printer. In case the cable is the problem, I unplugged it from the power strip. I now have a lead and a few questions-
Is it safe to open the printer’s outside case and look at the insides?
Is this something that can be fixed?
If so, is this something I can fix or do I need an expert friend?
I am very relieved to hear the cause is one so easily isolated, especially while you’re out of town!
With less anxiety, I look forward to hearing what on earth could be the cause here.
My uneducated guess- Either because the new power cable was bad, or a different rating than the old one, the printer was receiving a bit too much power. This gradually lead to overheating and capacitor popping.
ETA, now that I know the source of the problem I can either repair the printer, or just throw it out. As printers are expensive, this printer has worked very well until now, and because it is big and weighs at least 30 pounds and I really don’t want to have to carry it down to the front door, around the side of the building, and lift it into the dumpster- I would prefer to repair it.
Either way, I will no longer need that webcam.
Add me to the list of relieved individuals! And keep the webcam, it’s dirt cheap and maybe you can use it to track the rodents or something equally silly. Of course, if you make an award winning website based on VR webcam Rodent Hunter 
I’d love a cut!
Aside to @DavidNRockies - I totally agree it was a reach. Brainstorming is about possibilities, not probability until you get to the evaluation stage. But I was reminded of the classic Mythbusters episode with the hot water heater launch. It took three distinct seperate failures to partially recreate the event. But even they said (paraphrasing) that given the number of water heaters in the US, and the craptastic maintenance on some of them, it was plausible.
Once again, a deep sigh of escaping tension, and hope this gets all the Murphy’s Law out of the way before @DocCathode escapes for a duration to warmer climes.
Don’t try to fix the printer yourself - you clearly are not knowledgeable enough.
Printers can’t receive “too much power” from a new power cord.
Does this printer have an external power supply (a “brick”)? That needs to match.
Yeah, I didn’t think this was something I could fix myself. I was hoping I was wrong.
I thought they came rated to deliver different voltages?
No, it was a standard power cable. Two prongs and a ground on one end, three holes on the other. AFAIK these have not changed since I used them to power Commodore floppy drives in the seventies.
A much better discovery than some!
That is an “IEC” cable (most likely).
Anyway, they all are rated for at least 120V, but the beefier ones can deliver more current before melting. A printer is a pretty low-current device, so the cord can be generic.
Perhaps something happened to the printer during the move? Maybe someone jostled it too hard or stored it sideways or upside down.
Okay. Thanks.
What do you think happened? How long and how expensive would repairs be? If you say I cannot do it myself, you are probably right. However, I have been trying to get a friend who would definitely be able to do the repair to visit and pick up a vintage computer for some time.