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After burning the Chametz we say
כָּל חֲמִירָא וַחֲמִיעָא דְּאִכָּא בִרְשׁוּתִי דַּחֲזִתֵּהּ וּדְלָא חֲזִתֵּהּ דַּחֲמִתֵּהּ וּדְלָא חֲמִתֵּהּ דְּבִעַרְתֵּהּ וּדְלָא בִעַרְתֵּהּ לִבָּטֵל וְלֶהֱוֵי הֶפְקֵר כְּעַפְרָא דְאַרְעָא. Any Chametz that I own... whether I burned it or not, is null and ownerless, like dust.
Why do we need to nullify burnt Chametz? If it’s burnt, it doesn’t need nullification!
You assume that לבער means "to burn", although it's R Yehuda opinion on Peshachim 21a, We don't accept his opinion, we accept the opinion that one can get rid of the chametz in many ways (burning is still preferred), so לבער means to "to get rid of" in this connotation.
It's not the sole time that לבער does not mean "to burn".
Livestock sometimes called this way:
בראשית מה יז
טַעֲנוּ אֶת בְּעִירְכֶם וּלְכוּ בֹאוּ אַרְצָה כְּנָעַן
Load your livestock, and go, come to Cennan
(tenth)ביעור" מעשר" is not that you need to burn the tenth, it means you have to give it.
(The holy corps of the seventh year) ביעור" פרות שביעית" - We say that you don't even have to destroy it, it's enough to lose possession of it
so it's possible, that one did ביעור of the chametz, but it's still exists.
A student asked the Netziv this question one time at Volozhin. He replied that the Gemara says if a building collapses on your chametz, "it's as if it was destroyed." However, you still have to nullify it!
He said the phrase "that I destroyed" refers to such a case.
