<p>Fires are major disturbances in forest ecosystems, shaping spatial heterogeneity and structural diversity across a spectrum of severity: low-severity fires maintain open-canopy forest structures by interrupting succession, while high-severity fires kill all trees in a forest patch, generating enormous quantities of deadwood resources that can persist for decades. Saproxylic organisms are key agents of wood decomposition and nutrient cycling; yet, in managed forests, many are threatened by disruption of the natural disturbance regime. We undertook this review to synthesize current knowledge on the role of fire in shaping saproxylic habitats and communities, with a focus on insects, which dominate the available literature. Our synthesis shows that burnt forests consistently harbour distinct saproxylic communities, with elevated abundance and richness across biomes. Within these communities, a distinct subset, the fire-favoured species relies directly on post-fire habitats. Another subset, the fire-sensitive species, disappear after the fire but recolonize the sites in the subsequent years, taking advantage of the surge of deadwood resources at advanced-stage decay. Burnt stands act as temporary demographic sources, maintaining metapopulation processes in fire-favoured saproxylic species. Moreover, fire maintains tree diversity at the landscape scale, supporting sun-loving disturbance-resistant forest types, supporting their associated saproxylic organisms. In contrast, management interventions such as fire suppression and salvage logging disrupt these dynamics by reducing the continuity and diversity of deadwood habitats. Ultimately, the loss of natural fire regimes correlates with the loss of the first biological agents decomposing fire-killed trees, jeopardizing nutrient cycling.</p>