| By Big Radio News Staff | This story has been updated to include comment from JP Cullen
A man working as a subcontractor for Janesville commercial builder JP Cullen settles for $22 million after he was severely burned during a job at Camp Randall Stadium in 2022.
Dane County court records show Jeremy R. Rose, a roofing subcontractor for JP Cullen, has settled with Cullen after he was burned in April 2022 while working in a utility room under Camp Randall’s south end zone.
Rose had most of his body severely burned when his attorneys say a Cullen foreman used a flame torch to dry a floor as Rose was applying a flammable liquid in the room.
Attorneys say the room exploded in flames and Rose was burned with spilled chemicals while trying to run from the fireball.
The attorney in the suit, Habush, Habush and Rottier president Dan Rottier, says in a statement that JP Cullen failed to follow construction safety protocols in operating a torch near flammable materials.
In a statement, Rottier says, “Simple compliance with industry standards and internal standards would have prevented this accident. Safety sometimes takes time and time is money and money is profit. Unfortunately, sometimes priorities are misplaced at the expense of workers.”
The settlement means JP Cullen, one of Wisconsin’s longest-running commercial construction firms, admits no wrongdoing.
JP Cullen Co-President Jeannie Cullen Schultz declined to discuss the agreement in detail in an email to WCLO on Thursday evening. In the email, Cullen Schultz offered the following, written statement:
“While we are not going to discuss the agreement, we will say that our No. 1 priority is the health and safety of everyone on our projects. It is a core foundation to our culture of safety established over 130 years ago.”
