An Omaha woman might owe her life to a carbon monoxide detector that signaled a potentially lethal threat in her home Friday morning.

Joann Flickinger says she just had her furnace checked out last week so she was surprised when she heard her CO detector sounding.

Fire crews arrived to find lethal levels of carbon monoxide in the house.

The Metropolitan Utilities District suspects that something was wrong with the furnace.

Flickinger believes her alarm saved her life.

"Yes, that's true," she told us. "And I'm very fortunate that I didn't have my puppy dog or she probably would have bit the dust today."

The dog was safe at a neighbor's home.

Joann says she will have to stay out of her town home for at least 24 hours.