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Selby On Traumatic Rhodes Experience

World number five Mark Selby has looked back on a difficult summer holiday experience, where he and his family got caught up in the wildfires in Rhodes before being evacuated by boat.

The Leicester cueman was away with wife Vikki and daughter Sofia on the Greek island this summer. The terrifying wildfires coincided with their stay and meant the holiday had to be ended after just two days.

Thankfully, Selby and his family were safely evacuated and there were no human casualties during the experience. However, it was a traumatic 48 hours.

Selby recalled: “It was tough and scary really. When we were there, we saw the smoke in the distance while traveling to the hotel, but it was quite far away. We thought that the fire brigade would get on top of it, but we had strong winds for two days. That blew the fires everywhere and made it even more difficult for the fire services to keep on top of it. Before we knew it the fire was right on our doorstep and we were getting evacuated. Thankfully nobody was hurt and we all got back safe. It was a traumatic time for sure.

“They said they were going to get us out on coaches, but the road near the airport was closed due to the fires so they shut that as well. We had to go down to the beach and they brought some fishing boats to take us to the north part of the island where the airport was. That was traumatic as well, because all of the families were there with children and all of the children were screaming as they could see the fire in the distance. It was tough but all of the locals were really helpful and they couldn’t have done enough.”

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