(CNN) Michigan is never the warmest of states in winter. It's easy to joke there that Hell has frozen over, because the tiny lakeside community with that name very well might this time of year.

During this week's brutally dangerous freeze in the Midwest -- it was 9 below zero Thursday morning in Detroit, 11 below in Hell -- Michiganders probably feel like cranking up the heat.

But a certain mishap had the governor asking residents to do just the opposite -- and they listened.

On Wednesday night, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked everyone in the state's lower peninsula to turn their thermostats down to 65 degrees.

A fire at Consumers Energy's Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station in suburban Detroit shut down all gas flow from the facility. The station is responsible for about one-fifth of the state's natural gas storage supply.

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