Suburban W Heater sol. leaking gas

Thank you Rich, as you brought up something I wasn't thinking about. I am guessing? the t-stat commands the system to fire up to maintain heat? But if it detects no flame, it should shut down the gas flow, correct? This morning, the reset light was on, but I had removed the ground wire (at sol) to be sure the leak wouldn't happen. Plugged the ground this morning, fired system up again, all okay so far. I will monitor again today, but thanks to you all I am slowly understanding this system. Still don't understand why I could manipulate the sol. by removing the ground wire? But hoping it will act up so I can trace the power back. We are up in Red Feather Lakes, Co., so dealing with daily rain showers/storms also. Boy this is fun!!