In an alley in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, volunteers are trying to keep drug addicts safe amidst an overdose crisis affecting the entire country.

The Overdose Prevention Society has set up a pop-up harm and overdose reduction tent off of Main and East Hastings Streets to keep users safe.

It is here that people afraid of overdosing can be supervised – a measure of safety in an impoverished community where too many are dying. Volunteers also carry naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of an overdose from fentanyl or other opioids.

“It's like a war zone down here right now and it's really quite scary for the frontline workers,” said Sarah Blyth, noting all volunteers are trained to administer both CPR and naloxone.

“We’re not waiting for the government, we’re not asking for permission. We’re just going to do it.”

Blyth called it "crazy" that the situation is so dire that there's a need for volunteers.

"The government needs to do something," she said.

The work they do is technically illegal, but so far no one is stopping them. The first tent was set up in September and another just this weekend – and the Society says it has saved more lives than it can count.

The new site is just a few steps away from a legal supervised injection site, but the facility is often swamped, so people use the nearby alley to shoot up. That's where organizers chose to set up their pop-up site.

In the first 10 months of the year, 622 people in B.C. died of drug overdoses, compared to 397 during the same period last year. Fentanyl was detected in many of the deaths.

On Sunday afternoon, volunteer Sue Ouelette had already administered naloxone twice at the pop-up tent when she spotted a man in trouble.

“Someone keep talking to him,” she told witnesses, noting the man had no pulse and wasn't breathing.

Ouelette administered naloxone not once, but three times, and performed CPR. Eventually, paramedics arrived and the man was revived.

CTV News visited the site again on Monday morning, and organizers said there had already been two overdoses. There was a third within minutes of CTV's arrival, and before the ambulance could leave, a fourth emergency occurred.

The Overdose Prevention Society is funded by a GoFundMe page. Organizers say it costs $100 a day to operate, including supplies, tents, volunteer training, and cleaning.

“It’s just something that we’re here doing because it needs to be done, and we can’t sit around watching people die in the street,” said Blyth.

“It’s my neighbourhood, and there are far too many people dying and it’s needless,” added Ouelette, tearing up.

“You can't stop them from using the drug, but you can sure as hell stop them from dying.”

Vancouver Coastal Health doesn't support the pop-up sites, and has applied for more legal injection sites in the city.

But advocates and users say waiting for the government to act could cost some people their lives.

One woman who's used the site's services said she started using heroin after her husband left her. Crystal said she knows there's a chance that her drugs could be laced with fentanyl, which is significantly more potent and can be fatal.

"I'm nervous, but I'm all by myself," she said, explaining why she uses the pop-up supervised injection site.

She said she tried to get clean, but "I gave up because I don't have nobody."

With files from CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro and Mi-Jung Lee