He also had the guts to get the skydivers out of the balloon. With the weight of five more people in the basket he would have had a much better chance of bringing it down. Very selfless of him to tell them to jump.
If you get hit by a downdraft, a parachute isn't going to save you. You're no safer with one than you would be in a balloon basket. If the downdraft is strong enough, even being in a plane isn't going to protect you.
Not usually. If the burner goes out and for some reason cannot be reignited, the balloon acts as a parachute and descends at parachute speed (about 17 feet per second).