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Don't get me wrong, properly maintained and adjusted for what they are burning, boilers and furnaces are safe. But if you are not an expert, you can make mistakes that can be very dangerous. So I would go with solutions that are proven and approved by your local code agency.
One case I dealt with was an elderly couple who noticed how cool it was in their basement during the summer, and they adapted the forced air venting to allow them to draw the cool basement air into their ductwork and distribute it around the house. What they didn't realize is that in doing so, they changed the atmospheric pressure in the basement; it was now negative, instead of positive, and when winter came and the heater turned on, the flue gasses spilled into the basement instead of going out the flue pipe. They both died.
Like ebacherville, I have CO detectors because they are cheap insurance. But people turn them off because they think they are malfunctioning; they don't smell anything, and the damn things keep alarming. One of the cases I dealt with was a medical doctor who turned off the CO detector and realized what was happening when his daughter vomited, and he noticed her lips were blue. He realized then what he knew from his training, that she was getting poisoned by the carbon monoxide. Because it is odorless and colorless, he was relying on his senses rather than the detector. He was also probably affected by the CO himself. So if the alarm goes off, open the doors and windows and get outside. Even if you think its a false alarm.
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