Jay Leno knows the Nov. 12 garage fire that left him with second-degree burns and the need for skin grafts could have been much worse, as he explained in an interview published Tuesday in which he spoke for the first time about the accident. Had talked. “I could have lost an eye,” he said.
The former “Tonight Show” host working on one of his many cars in Burbank, a 1907 White Steam Car Park with a clogged fuel line. Leno explained, “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.” People about antique car
In his attempt to open 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 like my face was on fire. Maybe like the most intense sunburn ever, it would be fair to say,” Leno quipped.
He had the presence of mind to hold his breath. “I’m not a nervous guy, but I knew if I inhaled I could scorch my lungs,” he said. He estimates that it took his friend, Dave Kilke, “about 10 seconds” to come to his rescue. He said, “Longer than that I could lose my eye.”
They used Kilaki’s shirt to extinguish the flames, but he suffered second-degree burns to his face, neck, chest, arms and left arm. Leno underwent skin grafting surgery and hyperbaric chamber treatment. In photos shot for People, the left side of his face and his left hand show only slight discoloration due to the burns.
He spent nine days at The Grossman Center. His surgeon, Dr. Peter Grossman, told People, “Jay is definitely different in terms of how well he’s recovered given the severity of his injuries.”
The comedian quickly got back on stage, performing standup on stage Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach on November 27, where he joked, “I never thought of myself as a roast comic,” and joked that he was “extra crispy”.
“It kind of got my career a shot in the arm because it’s like, ‘Let’s see her before she gets burned again,'” he told People.
He is still on the mend, but says, “I’m fine. And I’m sure I’ll continue to do the same stupid things I’ve always done. Just maybe a little more carefully.”
