It's not strange that they would inspect Trump's place. Trump's version of "secret service" was present during the inspection.
Typically, people don't die from the actual fire - they die from smoke inhalation. And it doesn't seem strange at all that Trump's residence was inspected. I would expect that. It also does not seem unusual for exaggerations or outdated info to be found in news articles. That's why several articles are needed to paint the picture. I agree that the whole story has problems. But I think you're over-focusing on something that doesn't answer the connection between four people - two of which are unrelated to Trump.
Michael Dean Cohen's office is inside Trump tower… could it be that the fire was a distraction so that someone (like say, Dennis Shields) could go into Cohen's office and take out incriminating evidence? The link then between Shields and Cohen is that they are life-long friends, both were/have been involved in some kind of bank fraud (Sheilds -"loan shark" behaviour, Cohen -> the transfer to Stormy Daniels was flagged because of the way he did it, rather than the transfer itself). Stormy Daniels is somehow linked/involved. The art dealer, Todd Brassner, was a black hat victim. So something was taken from Cohen's office and today, Mueller orders the raid on Cohen's office to prevent anything else getting lost. Stormy has nothing to do with Trump but is in fact, someone who received a bribe from Cohen personally (Cohen used personal funds - not client funds, which would be Trump, nor the firm's funds). Could this be the link? Q, care to weigh in? Are we on the right track?