The Western Bulldogs have thanked the CFA volunteers who helped protect communities in Western Victoria from bushfires in February.
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A warm and dry end to summer saw multiple bushfires take hold and threaten several communities in Western Victoria, including Pomonal and Dadswells Bridge.
The fires destroyed over 40 homes before CFA volunteers got them under control.
On Sunday, March 24, the Western Bulldogs invited 20 CFA volunteers to form a guard of honour as players ran onto the ground at Ballarat's Mars Stadium to take on the Gold Coast Suns, and 100 were offered general admission tickets.
CFA deputy chief officer west region Brett Boatman said the gesture from the Western Bulldogs was warmly received.
"The west of the state has had a hard couple of months and our volunteers have worked tirelessly to protect their communities," he said.
"Our volunteers involvement in the Western Bulldogs game on home turf is a fantastic gesture and recognises the hours of time our volunteers have given and reinforces the Bulldogs strong connection to the west."
Dadswells Bridge stud farmer, Ellie McDonald, was also invited to do the coin toss.
Ms McDonald, who is also a CFA volunteer, worked on February 13 when her home town was under threat.
"On February 13 the first call came through about 11.30am and we saw the smoke and knew this was going to be a big day," she said.
"We quickly rang a lot of the locals, the vulnerable ones we thought would be in danger and anyone else we could think of to get them out of the way. We saved one house and went up the road to help out."
From that fire, Ms McDonald lost 30 of her 270 sheep and found all but two of her paddock burnt when she returned to her 800 acre farm.
"It could have gone very differently," Ms McDonald said.