Jay Leno released from burn center, expected to make full recovery

Jay Leno was severely burned last week while working on one of his cars

By Sam Barsanti | November 22, 2022 | 1:18am

Aux News Jay Leno

Jay Leno released from burn center, expected to make full recovery

Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste

Read our announcement | See the 10 Best Games of 2025 (So Far)

Jay Leno Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for SiriusXM

After experiencing severe burns last week when one of his many vintage cars caught on fire, Jay Leno has been released from the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles and is expected to make a full recovery. Leno had been working on a 1907 White Model G Steam Car (he’s going to be fine, so we can make a joke about how you should write that down in case it ever comes up as a trivia question) when a clog in the fuel line caused some gasoline to spray out onto his face and hands. The gasoline was then ignited by a spark, and though a nearby friend was able to quickly help, Leno was left with “deep second-degree burns, and possibly some third-degree burns.”

But he’s going to be okay, and Dr. Peter Grossman—of the famous burn center that shares his name!—said in a statement (via NBC Los Angeles) that he’s “optimistic” that Leno is going to “make a full recovery” after undergoing a pair of grafting surgeries and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The Grossman Burn Center is so confident that Leno is going to be fine that it released a photo of him with some of the medical staff, which would be a weird thing to do otherwise.

Most Popular

Still, Leno’s recovery might take a little time and require him to take a bit of a break, with Grossman saying that the comedian might need to “step it back a little” and focus on treatment, adding, “I do feel he will be back to work at some point soon and back to the things that he loves to do.” That’s the kind of caution we’ve come to expect from the Grossman Burn Center. They’re not just going to throw Jay Leno back out on the streets and let him keep working on old steam cars until it’s safe for him to do so.