Kevin Taplin was so drenched in fuel after his best mate poured a jerry can over him that he could taste it in his mouth.
The 47-year-old sat in disbelief as Umit Gorgulu then set him alight at Hamilton, in Victoria's southwest, in April 2019.
Mr Taplin jumped out of his ute and rolled around on a nature strip in a desperate attempt to put out the flames.
But he thought he was going to die.
"I felt petrol being thrown on me. It was all over my upper body - I could taste it," Mr Taplin told a Victorian Supreme Court jury on Wednesday.
"And then he ignited the fuel and set me on fire. I was just completely surrounded by flames. I was in the middle of a fireball.
"At that stage I knew I was going to die if I couldn't save myself."
Mr Taplin could see Gorgulu rolling on the ground, trying to save himself as his hands had also caught fire.
But he said the 39-year-old never tried to help him.
Mr Taplin could also see the lights of a nearby carport.
And he could only hope that his screams for help, which followed Gorgulu punching him about 10 times, smashing his windscreen and setting him alight, would quickly attract attention.
"They saved my life - they ripped off my spray jacket, which still had petrol on it, and hosed me down for about 10 minutes," Mr Taplin said of the strangers who came outside to assist him.
"By the time I got into the back of an ambulance the adrenaline wore off and the pain started coming in. I got a (pain relief) whistle and pretty much passed out."
Mr Taplin was airlifted to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne with severe burns to his head, torso, hands, arms, legs and internal organs.
He was placed on life support, spent two weeks in a coma, and still has scarring, lung damage, and eye damage from the attack.
The pair had been driving from their home in Portland to Hamilton to pick up Mr Taplin's motorbike when a fight suddenly broke out.
Gorgulu smashed the dashboard and threw his own phone out the window, the court was told.
Mr Taplin stopped to help but then drove off after Gorgulu tried to grab his house and car keys.
"It went from zero to 100 - it was just an explosive reaction," he said.
"I realised that his anger had moved from the phone to me. I just left him on the side of the road ... to avoid being hurt."
Gorgulu later left Mr Taplin a threatening voice message from a stranger's phone in Hamilton, before attacking him with the jerry can he had packed for his motorbike, once Mr Taplin located him in town.
The woman whose phone Gorgulu used said she heard him say he would burn Mr Taplin's motorbike and "f*** him up".
Defence barrister James McQuillan on Tuesday said there was no dispute Gorgulu set Mr Taplin on fire but argued it was a "terrible accident" and that he did not mean to kill him.
"That's what this trial is about - his intent or otherwise," Mr McQuillan told the jury.
