Jay Leno

Jay Leno didn't exactly rush to get medical treatment after his face, chest and hands caught fire last month when he was working on one of his vintage cars.

“I don’t want to be one of those people. I appreciate it!’” I said, ‘I’m surprised you don’t have more important things to do. “When you look like me, you don’t really worry about what you look like,” he said. “My wife doesn’t drive anymore and I didn’t want her stuck and not knowing what was going on,” he said. They called 911, but Leno elected to go home instead of a burn unit, like doctors suggested.

In an interview with Hoda Kotb from "Today," his first since the November 12 incident, the comedian, 72, said he was working underneath an antique 1907 car ...

(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File) (AP Photo/Michael S. Leno is marking his 15th year as host of the show on Friday.(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Jay Leno appears during the final taping of NBC's “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, Feb. FILE - This May 21, 2014 file photo shows American comedian Jay Leno smiles during an interview with the Associated Press in Jerusalem. Joe Biden, D-Del., talk during the taping of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" at the NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, Oct. "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno greets fans during the taping of his show at the NBC studios Tuesday, May 25, 2005, in Burbank, Calif. 18, 2001 file photo at NBC studios in Burbank, Calif. **FILE** First lady Laura Bush and "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno share a moment during her appearance on the taping of the show at NBC studios in Burbank, Calif. The famed Hollwood Sign is lit by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, left, along with his wife Nancy, Tonight Show host Jay Leno and comedian Will Shriner at the stroke of midnight during Celebrate L.A. Jay Leno gestures during the opening monologue at the inauguration of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" which was broadcast live on the east coast from NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., May 25, 1992. Jay Leno, left, hugs Branford Marsalis during the inauguration of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" which was broadcast live on the east coast from NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., May 25, 1992.

Jay Leno revealed what happened after he suffered third-degree burns in a gasoline fire and how he looks and is feeling now on NBC's Today show.

“When you look like me, you don’t really worry about what you look like,” he said. “My wife doesn’t drive anymore and I didn’t want her stuck and not knowing what was going on,” Leno said. That was all secondary.” “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out: call 911.” “I’m not a panicky guy, but I knew if I breathed in I could scorch my lungs,” Leno told People. Any longer than that I could have lost my eye.” He downplays it all…it was a wall of fire,” Killackey said as he joined Leno and Kotb for the interview. Luckily, his friend Dave Killackey, who was working on the car with him, helped put the fire out. “I couldn’t even see his face. On Today, Leno detailed how he had some work done on his face, left ear and hands, saying the latter “got burned pretty badly.” During the treatment, Leno also had to spend eight hours a day in a hyperbaric chamber, which he called a “glass coffin,” joking about how he would tap on the glass to get people’s attention, with the oxygen helping him heal. “It just seemed like the right thing to do and I think it was.” “I grabbed him by the head and I pulled his head into my chest…started to smother the fire.”

Jay Leno talked to Today about the accident that led to him suffering severe burns last month, as he told co-host Hoda Kotb that his face "caught on fire.

“I was underneath it, trying to unclog it, and so I said, blow some air through the line,” Leno said. And I’m sure I’ll continue to do the same stupid things I’ve always done. Jay is definitely an outlier in terms of how well he’s healed considering the severity of his injuries.” He underwent two skin grafting procedures, People reported. He was treated at Grossman Burn Center in West Hills, but declined to take any pain medication, Kotb said. It was a scary thing. He was working with a friend, Dave Killackey.

The TV show host stopped by the Today show to chat with Hoda Kotb about his recent car fire.

“I said to my friend, I said, ‘Dave, I’m on fire,’” Leno recalls. It sounded clogged, and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line.’” “The fuel line was clogged, so I was underneath it.

Jay Leno and Arnold Schwarzenegger hang out at his Burbank garage, where the comic suffered burns while working on a car in November. (CNBC / NBCUniversal via ...

“Of course not,” he said. Leno called the chamber “a glass coffin” and joked about not being able to communicate with medical staff. He held up the issue during the interview, poking fun at the headlines including one that called him “a human torch.” He said people would just tell him, “Shut up!” “It seemed like the right thing to do.” Leno interrupted the retelling with a joke about “a bad Tinder date.” They said Leno ran over to a bathroom sink to run cold water on his face while Killackey put out the gasoline fire. It was a wall of fire.” But Leno said he declined an ambulance ride to a hospital , and instead drove himself home. Within days of his “He downplays it all, but I’m telling you, he was engulfed,” Killackey said. After multiple surgeries, his doctor expects a ‘full recovery.’

In an interview with Hoda Kotb from "Today," his first since the Nov. 12 incident, the comedian, 72, said he was working underneath an antique 1907 car ...

Comedian and former Tonight Show host Jay Leno made national headlines when a spontaneous car fire left him with third-degree burns to his hands and face.

Despite the horrific incident and painful recovery process, Leno never complained once. Suddenly I got a face full of gas, and then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire.” It just seemed the right thing to do.” “And I said, ‘Blow some air through the line,’ and so he did. “He asked me ‘How do I look?’,” says Killackey. The fuel line was clogged, so I was underneath it,” Jay tells Hota.