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 an unforeseen medical condition that resulted in him needing a ramp," Meka said. "I think it's important to do because he supports us and we're going to try and support him the best way we can."
The team used lumber and supplies donated by the Delafield Home Depot to build the much-needed ramp in Modjeska's garage.
Watch: Local firefighters answer the call for fire chaplain in need of wheelchair ramp
"It's important to me because we have a man who is in need, and that's what we do as firefighters. When somebody is in need, we step up at the last minute and reach out and help the best way we can. So building a ramp is the best thing for Ralph and what's going to help him in the foreseeable future," Meka said.
For Modjeska, the gesture exemplified the special bond among firefighters.
"I think the fire departments, they have a brotherhood like nobody else," Modjeska said.
The grateful chaplain described the community response as prayers answered.
"So heartwarming, it's unbelievable," Modjeska said.
This story was reported on-air by Charles Benson and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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