When you smell ammonia that is the fertility you want volatizing into the air

. It probably didn't burn because it probably all volatized...
Better to go Opa's way and move the ammonia into a stable form (in compost that stable form is BACTERIA as they have an incredible low Carbon to Nitrogen ratio (C:N) of 5 to 1) Otherwise it volatizes to the air or turn into nitrite, then nitrate then it washes away if the CAtion Echange Capacity of the soil is fully loaded (which if you don't have a fair amount of biology in your soil, it is). This is why we get dminishing returns from chemical fertilizers (well, it's one reason...

)
Oh and don't worry about the bacteria; protozoa will eat them and release the nitrogen SLOWLY and naturally like Nature has always done it (and they are not water soluble, so they stay put). It's a lovely system, and it's worked for billions of years. Chemicals have only really been around for about a hundred years, and they aren't working out so well in the long term... ask the Okies in the Dust Bowl.... their soil is still messed up 80 years later and a lot of it (about twenty to forty thousand years worth) is just gone
HG