The incident occurred on Friday, 18 September. Firefighters received a report of a fire in a building on Widok Street in Bolesławiec. At the scene, it turned out that the building was heavily smoke-filled. Firefighters equipped with breathing apparatus entered the building and located the source of the fire. It turned out that a couch was burning on the first floor. The firefighters extinguished the fire, inspected the building and ventilated it. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident. The building where the fire occurred was unoccupied and open. The police were called to the scene. Bags containing belongings were found at the site; perhaps homeless people spend the night in the abandoned pottery and one of them accidentally started the fire.
The building on Widok Street was one of the branches of the “Bolesławiec” Ceramic Works. The last pre-war owner of the pottery was Max Werner, from a well-known family of ceramic artists, who was involved in developing the ceramics school in Bolesławiec. The most valuable object preserved to this day in the old pottery is a 19th-century ceramic kiln.
In Bolesławiec, in cooperation with the Museum of Ceramics, the pottery at 1b Widok Street will be modernised and adapted to serve as the Centre of Old Pottery Techniques. The modernisation will be carried out as part of a project to establish the Centre of Old Pottery Techniques. Over the past 25 years, the site has been unused or only partially used. The planned conservation and construction works aim to showcase the value of the preserved pottery kiln as a technical heritage site, improve its technical condition and create a space for workshops on old pottery techniques and exhibition projects. The “Centres of Old Crafts on the Via Fabrilis Route” project is worth EUR 2,410,606.73. The project partners are the Municipality of Bolesławiec – the lead partner, the Municipality of Kłodzko and the City of Jaroměř (Czech Republic).