OCONOMOWOC — A community of firefighters rallied to help one of their own when 83-year-old Chaplain Ralph Modjeska needed assistance after a recent leg amputation.

Modjeska, a retired Milwaukee Fire Department firefighter with 30 years of service and a longtime Waukesha County fire chaplain, recently had surgery to remove part of his leg.

While recovering at Oconomowoc Hospital, he told a nurse he was having trouble finding people to build a wheelchair ramp quickly.

"And she says, I'll call the chief. And that was maybe 3 or 4 days ago," Modjeska said.

The response was swift. Lieutenant Jordan Meka and a team of volunteers from Western Lakes Fire District stepped up to help their district chaplain.

"What we're doing here today is we are helping out our district chaplain, who suffered

See Full Page