Jay Leno’s friend describes ‘horrific’ moments after comedian’s face caught fire
Jay Leno's good friend Dave Killackey described springing into action to save him after a "wall of fire" engulfed Leno's face and body while the two were working on one of Leno's classic cars in his garage last month.
Killackey spoke to Hoda Kotb alongside the former "Tonight Show" host in a TODAY exclusive about the immediate aftermath of a frightening fire that put Leno into a burn unit for nine days.
"It was horrible," Killackey said. "In fact, he asked me, 'How do I look?' and I think I said, 'Not good. I think this is going to be a bad thing.' When the first two layers are peeling off right now, you know this is a real issue."
Killackey and Leno were working on one of Leno's vintage automobiles, a 1907 White Steam Car, when Leno asked Killackey to blow some air through a clogged fuel line.
"And suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas," Leno said. "And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire.”
Killackey was standing just a few feet away when the flames overwhelmed Leno.
"I couldn’t even see his face," he said. "He downplays it all, but I’m telling you, he was really engulfed. It was a wall of fire right in front of me."
Killackey's quick thinking helped save Leno from potentially even more catastrophic damage.
"I just grabbed him," he said. "He was just under the car. I grabbed him by the head, and I pulled his head into my chest."
"I thought it was a bad Tinder date," Leno joked. "I thought, 'What’s going on here?' He clutched me to his bosom."
Killackey did his best to try to smother the flames.
"Then I put the car out. And I told Jay, 'Go into the bathroom, (and) put cold water on your face.'"
Killackey put out the fire in the vintage car and then rushed to see Leno in the bathroom.
"He downplays that, but it was horrific," Killackey said. "It was a scary thing. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out, 'Call 911.'"
Leno then stunningly drove home because he didn't want his wife, Mavis, to worry. She took one look at him and said he had to go to the doctor, which ultimately resulted in a nine-day stay at the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles.
Doctors had to scrape away layers of burned skin, but they said Leno never complained and was more worried about cheering up other patients.
"When you look like me, you don’t really worry about what you look like," he said. "Look, if I'm George Clooney it’s going to be a huge problem, but they said it would be all right, so my attitude is I trust people who are the best to do what they do."
Leno suffered burns on his face, chest and hands. He spent eight hours a day isolated in a hyperbaric chamber, where the pure oxygen helped the healing process.
Less than two weeks after being released from the hospital, he was back doing stand-up comedy, which he still performs at 150 shows a year.
"I don’t want to be one of those people, 'Oh, I have all these cars and a beautiful house and look what happened to me!'" Leno said. "People would be like, 'Shut up!'"
This article was originally published on TODAY.com