home heating question

[JoDog]

Here's a question for any handymen or gals out there:

My apartment has an old, standing pilot light gas furnace. Yesterday, the electrical power to most of the basement where the furnace is located went out. Early diagnosis is that something went wrong with the circuit breaker or fuses that control the power to that part of the building, and only that part of the building.

Whatever happened, my furnace will not turn on. The pilot light is on, everything looks fine, it's just in a part of the building where the electrical power is on the fritz. My understanding was that an older system like this, with an actual pilot light, did not use any electrical power. I have done some reading, and have found out that these old systems were often connected into a nearby circuit breaker. My hunch is that this was done for safety reasons--whatever is causing enough of a problem to trip the circuit posed enough of a hazard to a highly flammable natural gas system that it was prudent to shut the whole thing down until repairs were made.

Please note that the much newer gas-powered water heaters in the basement are working fine.

My questions:
1. Am I wrong that an old standing pilot system would use no electricity? (I need to know this because my landlady is involved, and if she thinks she's paying for any juice to my furnace, things could get ugly.)
2. Is my guess as to why such a system would be patched into a circuit breaker close? If not, why? (Although the answer to number 1 may also serve as answer to this one.)

Thanks.