The province will head back to court next week to argue Victoria’s tent city should be dismantled after a fire commissioner’s report deemed the site unsafe.

Housing minister Rich Coleman said Fire Commissioner Bob Cooper’s report determined the encampment does not comply with a safety order issued May 11.

The order gave campers a May 25 deadline to mitigate risks which include crowding of tents, tarps over shelters and storing of combustible materials.

“As a result, he has stated in his report that the danger to life and safety created by the fire hazards is increasing, and it’s considered to be only a matter of time until a serious fire incident occurs,” Coleman said.

Campers told CTV News Tuesday they did work to make tent city safer, but the fire commissioner’s report said it's not enough.

“There has been deterioration of the camp since the last inspection with items blocking egress pathways,” Cooper wrote. “Structures are larger and flow together due to flammable tarpaulins with little or no separation between the tents.”

Coleman called the findings “significant” to the ministry, especially amid reports of increased levels of crime and violence at and around the site.

“Given those findings the province will go back to court next week sometime to ask for an injunction as early as we can possibly get it. It would be irresponsible for us to not try for an injunction again,” he said.

The province had previously filed a temporary injunction request in B.C. Supreme Court to remove campers, but it was denied. A permanent hearing was set for September.

Coleman maintained that if the site was found to be unsafe by the fire commissioner, he’d take it back to the courts before the hearing.

But campers won’t be left out in the cold even if they’re forced out of tent city, he said.

“I can tell you that when we’re done going through that process…we will have a home for all these people,” Coleman said. “So it won’t be an excuse that they have nowhere to go.”

He said about 190 people have housed from the site since it sprang up last fall, adding homeless activists as well as a criminal element have moved in since then.

Victoria police were recently given a budget boost to step up patrols in the area, following reports of people being attacked near the encampment, including a police officer.