Freshly shredded tobacco and hot smoke: no tongue burn, but why did it happen?

So I made a post about shredding whole leaf tobacco (mainly regarding cigar leaf, but I also have some burley and virginia) about a week ago. Last night was my first ever pipe smoke:
Using the leaf only shredder I shredded a mild cigar filler (I know I know, but the flavor wasn’t the issue). The flavor is very similar to a cigar, but the heat isn’t! I used a wooden stick to light the pipe and when I did it was extremely hot, not on my tongue though.... so any ideas on why the heat so so intense
Below were some thoughts I had during/after the smoke:
1) The pipe went out very fast as well
2) The tobacco may have been too dry, when shredding it there was some dust caused
3) I was worried about packing it too tight and the resistance was between sucking air and sucking soda out of a straw.
4) The tobacco consistency was mostly uniform in ~1mm thickness, some stands were quite long and some weren’t.
I realize I may have “a better smoke” using a different leaf, but I’d nonetheless like to try to get a good technique down before diving into the particulars of taste (which as stated above wasn’t bad..)
Thanks
-M.

Thanks guys!
I only shredded a couple days at once and am keeping it in a ziplock with little air, and the other leaves in the package they came in. Tonight I’ll try the paper towel trick and try packing it tighter.