Jay Leno knows the Nov. 12 garage fire that left him with second-degree burns and required skin grafts could have been a lot worse, as he explained in an interview published Tuesday in which he talked about the accident for the first time. “I could have lost an eye,” he said.
The former “Tonight Show” host was at home in Burbank working on his one of his many cars, a 1907 White Steam Car park that had a clogged fuel line. “With a steam car, you have gasoline, but you also have a vaporizer which is heated by a pilot light to turn water into steam,” Leno told People about the antique car.
In his attempt to unclog the fuel line, “I got a face full of gasoline,” he explained. “I knew how close I was to the pilot light and I thought ‘Uh oh.’” A spark reacted with the gas and ignited.
“It felt exactly like my face was on fire. Maybe like the most intense sunburn you’ve ever had, that’d be fair to say,” Leno quipped.
He had the presence of mind to hold his breath. “I’m not a panicky guy, but I knew if I breathed in I could scorch my lungs,” he said. He estimates that it took his friend Dave Killackey “about 10 seconds” to come to his rescue. “Any longer than that I could have lost my eye,” he said.
He used Killackey’s shirt to put out the flames, but suffered second-degree burns across his face, neck, chest, hands and left arm. Leno underwent skin grafting surgeries and hyperbaric chamber treatments. In photos shot for People, the left side of his face and his left hand show slight only discoloration from the burns.
He spent nine days at theThe Grossman Center. His surgeon, Dr. Peter Grossman, told People, “Jay is definitely an outlier in terms of how well he’s healed considering the severity of his injuries.”
The comedian quickly got back on stage, performing standup at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach on Nov. 27, where he joked, “I never thought of myself as a roast comic,” and joked that he’s “extra crispy.”
“It kind of gave my career a shot in the arm because it’s like, ‘Let’s go see him before he burns up again,’” he told People.
He’s still on the mend, but says, “I’m okay. And I’m sure I’ll continue to do the same stupid things I’ve always done. Just maybe a little bit more carefully.”
