My Water Heater Burst Open (help)

[brewer]

One morning as a kid, going down to breakfast in my pj's, I put my hand on the fridge handle and the other on top of the stove, only to discover that there was a shocking ground leak in one of the two.  Upon telling my dad about this, his only comment was, "Is that a fact," and he went about his business and never did anything about it.  In hindsight I suppose that's reasonable, but I was rather alarmed at the time.