Fire disturbance shapes the structure and composition of faunal communities in many forested ecosystems, but a new era of megafires that result from land use legacies and climate change has led to prolonged negative consequences for some forest specialists. Forest owls in the Sierra Nevada are presumably adapted to shorter-interval fires of mixed severity, but we have yet to quantify the distributions of this assemblage of species and their immediate and persistent responses to disturbance. In this study, we leveraged ecosystem-scale passive acoustic monitoring in the Sierra Nevada and occupancy models to 1) examine species-specific associations with burned habitat and fire legacies and 2) quantify the effect of novel fire disturbance on forest owl populations. Large areas of high-severity fire reduced site occupancy for most species in this assemblage of forest owls, including a mature-forest species for up to 20 years. Low- to moderate-severity fire benefited small cavity-nesting species, while patchy high-severity fire benefited one generalist species. As the climate continues to warm, fires that eliminate large, contiguous areas of live canopy cover could increasingly threaten many of these ecologically important species and the roles they play in ecosystems. Management strategies that reduce fuel loads, restore historical low-moderate severity fire with small patches of high severity fire, and promote a mosaic of forest conditions will likely facilitate the conservation of these nocturnal avian predators.