Boiler functions and uses

I recently found out that my husband and I are being relocated to the northern states.  I have never lived anywhere but in the deep south. I don’t know what it is to have heating in the house, and I was curious as to what kind of heating we were going to need for our new house.  My mother was raised up north, so I thought I may pick her brain a bit about what kind of heating I may be getting, or that I may need. She told me they had several different types of furnaces and they run on different types of fuels.  There were oil and gas furnaces and some people had fireplaces or wood burning furnaces. There was also electric heat which was basically a bunch of plug in radiators. She told me they had a boiler system in their home. The boiler was in the basement and it heated hot water.  The hot water went through water pipes that went throughout the home. The pipes led to radiators. Some furnaces produced steam and when the steam cooled, it would go back to the boiler to be reheated. It worked the same way for water. When the water was heated, it would be forced through the pipes and as it cooled, it would recirculate back to be reheated and sent back for heating.  Most of the boilers were also used for the hot water in the house. My following question now, is how does the boiler heat the water? Isn’t there some kind of fuel needed to create the flame that heats the water?

boiler repair