In mid-November, Jay Leno made headlines when he was rushed to the hospital after a fire broke out in his garage, where he famously keeps his massive car collection. According to an early report from TMZ, the fire ignited when one of the former Tonight Show host’s vehicles “erupted into flames without warning.” It was noted that, “The flames burned the left side of Jay’s face, but thankfully did not penetrate his eye or his ear.” Now, Leno is telling the story for himself.
As Page Six reports, Leno sat down for his first interview since the accident with the Today show’s Hoda Kotb, where he shared the terrifying details of the incident. On November 12, Leno and his friend Dave Killackey were in the comedian’s Los Angeles garage working on one of his cars, a 1907 White Steam Car.
“The fuel line was clogged so I was underneath it,” Leno explained. “It sounded clogged and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line,’ and so he did… And suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas. And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire.”
Leno knows the result of the injury could have been much worse, and credits Killackey with reacting quickly — and smartly — to the situation. “Dave, my friend, pulled me out and jumped on top of me and kind of smothered the fire,” Leno explained.
He was then rushed to Los Angeles’ Grossman Burn Center, where he remained for 10 days for treatment of third-degree burns. Just days after Leno’s arrival, Dr. Peter Grossman, the Burn Center’s director, told NBC News that Leno suffered “relatively serious” burns to “approximately seven percent of his body,” including his face, chest, and hands.
Last week, Leno penned an editorial about the incident for The Wall Street Journal in which he joked that he now has “a brand-new face” and “It’s better than what was there before.”
(Via Page Six)