Horrible! There was probably also a lot of accelerant type of material used by artists (turps and other solvents, paints, etc).
Perhaps, but if you look at the pre-fire pictures, the place looked like one big rummage sale. There was a lot of clutter, and most of it was probably flammable.
It was a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, it was full of people when the odds finally caught up to them.