Fireplace Box cleaning

I am looking for advice or recommendations on a smelly wood-burning fireplace and how to get the ashy/smoky smell out. We did not clean out the ash after last winter and shop-vac’ed it for Thanksgiving and the smoke smell seems to have permeated the bricks around the firebox. I have been using baking soda and an air purifier but the smell is strong.

Anyone had this problem and how did you fix it? Is there a good cleaner for this? We believe the chimney is fine so don’t want that cleaned, just the firebox. Thanks.