What Happened

On Saturday 15th December 2018, a major fire broke out in the White Factory, Bristol, UK. Explosions rang out across the area, flames reached 100ft in height and the fire burned for several hours before being put out by heroic firefighters. Two floors of the building were destroyed and collapsed on top of our workshop, leaving asbestos ashes and a flooded workshop full of rusting machines and metal.

Access to the workshop has been severely restricted but some stuff was retrieved from the workshop during tiny windows of opportunity.

-Things have taken a turn for the worse with recent asbestos contamination in the surrounding area, risking the destruction of remaining stock and machinery stretching out for months ahead.

Restarting Firewok

The Firewok Workshop was all about Creative Projects and Local Production

In order to get going again, we are looking to raise funds to help purchase equipment, machinery and materials and go towards the setup costs of a new workshop.

What was lost?

A fully functioning metal workshop, with equipment for production of Firewoks and creative projects.

We are desperately hoping that there will not be significant asbestos contamination that could result in the impounding or destruction of the machinery and stock that may have survived the fire and flooding.

As there is no roof on the building the longer it goes on the harder it will be to recover things, and it is now 2 months without open access to the workshop.

Rewards on offer

Small Rewards (£5-£15)
Firewok Sticker £10

Medium Rewards: (£20 - £50)
Bags £36,

Large Rewards (£60 - £150)
Creative Metalwork Workshop, Stainless Steel Firewoks, Pheonix Firewoks

When will you receive rewards?

It will take us a couple of months to be fully operational again but you can expect your rewards to arrive by mid March if not before.

Firewok

Firewok was founded 20 years ago by Kevin Hughes, a Bristol based metalsmith. During this time Firewok has become a generic name for firepits in Bristol, the  Southwest and throughout the UK. They have gone against the grain and stuck to their ecological ethos making beautiful, long lasting, handcrafted products. A true independent, offering lifetime repairs on their stainless steel Firewoks, fast paced consumerism is not what they are about.

Creative projects

Metalmedia, the creative side of Firewok has been designing and making public commissions, including Acoustic Arts playgrounds and kids metalwork at festivals. 

Risks and challenges

The main challenge now is finding a suitable workshop to set up production again. With your help and a bit of determination and grit, we hope to be up and running again in no time!

Here’s to another 20 years!  Thank you for your support.