Jay Leno is recovering after a freak accident (Picture: Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez/AFP/Getty)
Jay Leno has revealed that he was just ‘seconds’ away from losing an eye in a horrific car fire last month.
The American talk show host, 72, was working on one of his vintage cars in November when he accidentally got covered in petrol which then set alight.
Thankfully, Leno, who suffered some third-degree burns, has been able to make a ‘full recovery’ after being rushed to hospital for treatment.
Now he’s revealed that it was only the quick thinking of a nearby friend that saved him from suffering life-threatening injuries.
He said: ‘I was under the car maybe 10 seconds before [friend] Dave pulled me out. Any longer than that I could have lost an eye.’
Speaking to People magazine, he continued to recount the experience and recalled using a bit of his own expertise to save himself.
Jay was back on stage earlier this month following the fire at his garage (Picture: Backgrid)
‘I’m not a panicky guy,’ he stated. ‘But I knew if I breathed in, I could scorch my lungs’. He held his breath for as long as he could to avoid further injury.
Leno described having a ‘face full of gasoline’, saying: ‘It felt exactly like my face was on fire. Maybe like the most intense sunburn you’ve ever had.’
He then spent two weeks in a specialist burns unit at a nearby hospital, where he underwent a series of skin graft operations.
Leno was back out on the road following his treatment for third degree burns (Picture: SplashNews.com)
Now the host of Jay Leno’s Garage, a web TV series that sees Leno fix up cars and motorbikes, has said he’s refusing pain medication to teach himself a lesson.
‘The pain is a reminder that I’m an idiot’ he said, before declaring that the incident won’t be putting him off continuing to work in his garage.
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However, he did say that, while he’ll never be a ‘whiny celebrity’, the tributes that poured in for him following news of the fire were ‘really touching’.
Leno also revealed that the incident has given his career a ‘shot in the arm’, saying that people now want to see him again before he gets into another accident.
One of his recent engagements involved a stage show in Hermosa Beach, California, which Leno said made him feel good to be back in front of a crowd.
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MORE : Jay Leno recalls how his ‘face caught on fire’ after suffering severe burns in car garage accident
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Leno was injured in a fire at his garage.
