VANCOUVER - Almost immediately after a B.C. Supreme Court judge issued orders for campers to extinguish all open flames in Oppenheimer Park while she is hearing an injunction application, defendants re-lit a ceremonial fire, court was told Monday.

The deliberate disobedience of Justice Jennifer Duncan’s no-fire order appeared to irritate her more quickly than reports by Vancouver’s fire and police departments that issues in the park had gotten worse since her Sept. 30 decision to delay the city’s injunction application for a week in order for the campers to mount a defence.

City lawyers opened their case Monday arguing that the city’s parks bylaw doesn’t allow overnight campers or use after 10 p.m., and that there was no exigent circumstances under which the protesters needed to stay there. Instead, they said, the camp, which now exceeds 200 tents, had become a serious life and safety issue for fire and police.

Vancouver city lawyer Ben Parkin told Duncan that on Sept. 25 campers put out a ceremonial fire that had been maintained in the centre of the encampment. But it was lit five days later, right after the judge allowed a temporary adjournment, but also issued stringent conditions to improve safety in the camp, including a ban on open fires.

Parkin said fire department officials found the fire was not being attended and there was no water or other fire suppression materials nearby.

Just before she broke for lunch, Duncan told defence lawyer Mark Pontin he will have to explain to her why the defendants immediately broke her order.

The drama over the fire came as the city tries to get an interlocutory injunction and an accompanying enforcement order to clear the protesters and campers from the Downtown Eastside park. It says there is an adequate amount of shelters and units available for most of the campers, and that more units are coming on line in November and early next year.

Pontin and his co-counsel, D.J. Larkin of Pivot Legal Society, argue that mats on floors in emergency shelters don’t constitute appropriate housing.

The protesters set up their encampment July 17 in part to protest what they said were squalid conditions in the shelters and in single-room occupancy hotels.

The case is expected to continue for several days.

jefflee@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/sunciviclee