Jay Leno Reveals How He Sustained Third-Degree Burns in Garage Incident: “I’m on Fire”

Jay Leno has revealed how he sustained third-degree burns in a garage fire last month.

The former Tonight Show host told NBC News’ Hoda Kotb that he was injured while working on one of his vintage cars, specifically a 1907 White Steam Car.

“The fuel line was clogged so I was underneath it,” Leno says in a clip from a sit-down interview set to air on Wednesday’s Today. “It sounded clogged and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line,’ and so he did.”

Leno recalls that the fuel line made a noise, “And suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas. And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire.”

Luckily his friend Dave Killackey, who was working on the car with him, helped put the fire out.

“I said to my friend, I said, ‘Dave, I’m on fire.’ And Dave’s like, ‘All right.’ I said, ‘No, Dave, I’m on fire.’ And then, ‘Oh, my God.’ Dave, my friend, pulled me out and jumped on top of me and kind of smothered the fire,” Leno explains.

Leno was treated for third-degree burns during a 10-day stay at the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles.

Director Dr. Peter Grossman previously told NBC News that Leno suffered “relatively serious” burns to “approximately seven percent of his body,” including his face, chest and hands.

Leno received temporary skin grafts from “human cadaver skin,” Grossman said. And he said Leno seemed to have a “very high pain threshold.”

“He’s also very stoic individual and he’s just not one who wants to complain,” Grossman said.

Watch the clip of Leno’s interview with Kotb below.