However, the only employees were three underground workers still extracting clay and two surface workers and this indicates a decline in the local firebrick manufacturing industry.
The plant itself dominated the first 3 levels of the building with its massive steel furnace and generator blocks (steel structures lined with firebrick on the interior).
Metal stoves are often lined with refractory materials such as firebrick, since the hottest part of a woodburning fire will burn away steel over the course of several years' use.