Each year fires burn across around one-half of the grasslands that cover most of Madagascar’s Central Highlands, particularly in open, less densely settled areas. Before humans arrived on the island, lightning fires helped shape the temporal and spatial mosaic of highland vegetation. Since settlement, the Malagasy have harnessed fire for diverse resource management goals while altering vegetation communities and biogeochemical processes. Due to the environmental consequences of fire, administrators sought to suppress fires throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Government policies were contentious with rural communities and have seen little success in these inherently flammable landscapes. Here, we provide an overview of current understanding on fire in the Central Highlands, motivations for human use of fire, and the consequences of fire for the vegetation and broader ecological dynamics of the region, alongside how fire management has changed over time.