India, April 27 -- Two major fires within hours in Gurugram tore through a plastic factory-cum-godown in Bajghera early Sunday and a slum cluster near Sikanderpur late Saturday night, while a city bus also caught fire on Sunday afternoon, intensifying concerns over fire safety in densely populated and unregulated areas, officials said.

According to fire officials, the first blaze was reported around 2am at a warehouse storing plastic scrap, polystyrene and other highly combustible materials. The fire spread rapidly, fuelled by the nature of the materials. Workers initially tried to control it but alerted authorities around 4.20am as the situation worsened.

"Around 12 fire tenders were deployed and took nearly nine hours to douse the bla...