Mumbai, Oct. 27 -- Eight members of a family, including three children aged three to seven years, were rescued on Sunday morning after a fire broke out in their flat in a high-rise building in Kandivli West. The fire was likely caused by a short circuit and doused within 20 minutes while three family members had to be admitted to the hospital after suffering suffocation due to smoke inhalation, officials said. The blaze, reported around 7.45am, broke out in the living room of a three-bedroom flat on the second floor of Agarwal Residency, a 16-storey building on Shankar Lane. The Kotharis, who lived in the flat, were fast asleep then as it was a Sunday. Once they discovered the fire, they started shouting for help from the bedroom windows, as the fire in the living room prevented them from escaping through the main door. Amit Chakravarty, a security guard at the building, heard their cries and knocked on their neighbour's door for help. "I could hear the family shouting and see some smoke coming out through the edges of the main door," Chakravarty said. "We were leaving for our morning walk when the watchman knocked on our door," said the neighbour, who did not wish to be identified. The Kotharis usually kept a spare key to their main door with the neighbour, but had taken the same a day earlier and forgotten to return it, she said. "We managed to unlock the main door after they threw the keys from the window. But thick, black smoke rushed out through the door immediately," the neighbour said. By then, fire brigade officials had arrived at the spot, she added. "Two firemen climbed up to the window and began spraying water inside while others entered through the door and rescued all eight members of the family," said an official who requested not to be identified. "The rescue operation was easy since the incident took place on the second floor. Had it been on a higher floor, things would have been much more challenging," the official noted. The fire was confined to the electric wiring, installation, and wooden furniture, and doused within 20 minutes, he said. Chintan Kothari, 45, Khyati Kothari, 42, and Jyoti Kothari, 66, suffocated due to smoke and were admitted in the intensive care unit, and their condition was stable, said officials. Five other members of the family - Parth Kothari, 39, Riddhi Kothari, 36, Ayara Kothari, 6, Pranj Kothari, 3, and Mahavir Kothari, 7 - were treated for suffocation and minor injuries and discharged, officials said....