A group of Surrey outreach workers is calling on the city to do more to save lives, with 81 suspected overdoses reported in just one week.

Members of NightShift Street Ministries are doing what they can to help, training dozens of volunteers how to react if they witness an overdose, but some said the local government isn't doing enough.

NightShift is a Whalley-based group that provides nightly outreach including counselling, education and transitional housing for those who are homeless or suffering from addiction.

In a single day last week, three people overdosed right outside the doors of NightShift.

"I'm watching them drop," founder and president MaryAnne Connor said.

"I'm standing in here and outside the window, people are yelling for Narcan."

The overdose crisis is at least partially being blamed on the drug fentanyl, which is now so common on the streets that many of Metro Vancouver's first responders are carrying the antidote daily.

The opioid fentanyl is significantly stronger than heroin, and often secretly mixed in by drug dealers or suppliers to save money. The effects of the opioids like fentanyl can be reversed with naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan.

The second half of November has been especially bad for overdoses. On Friday, the Ministry of Health revealed there was a record number of overdose-related 911 calls between Nov. 17 and 23.

In the one-week period, paramedics responded to 494 suspected overdoses in the greater Vancouver area, including 271 in the Downtown Eastside and 81 in Surrey.

One of those people was Cecilia, a 28-year-old who was taken to hospital Friday night, but was back on the street on Saturday.

"Yesterday I overdosed twice," she told CTV News, adding that she's overdosed so many times she's lost count.

"I think everything nowadays is laced with fentanyl."

Another overdose victim was the niece of Rita Schneitzer, a 23-year-old woman who did not survive her encounter with fentanyl two months ago.

"She wasn't living on the street. She wasn't an addict. She was just starting to delve into recreational drugs," Schneitzer said.

Schneitzer's daughter, Gabriella, said she doesn't want to see it happen again, and felt like the training could help her save a life.

"It's what I feel I can do now, at this place and time in my life, to honour her," she said.

But volunteers like the Schneitzers aren't enough, Connor told CTV. She wants the city to do more to help Surrey's overdose victims.

"I don't think they're doing enough," she said.

"I don't think they know what to do. I don't think anybody does."

A Surrey city councillor said staff is working hard to find solutions, partnering with RCMP, Fraser Health, bylaw officials.

"We have given it our urgent and most pressing priority," Councillor Vera LeFranc said.

They're also working with organizations located on 135A Street, a notorious section of Whalley known as "The Strip" where many of the recent overdoses have been reported. But LeFranc said she knows the drug crisis isn't exclusive to one part of the city.

"We are seeing deaths in other neighbourhoods where people are more isolate, trying drugs for the first time, an occasional user," she said.

Until a solution can be found, volunteers are hoping what they learned in training at NightShift will help them save lives on the street.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Michele Brunoro