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Tropical peat fires occur nearly every year, but burning conditions are aggravated during droughts in Indonesia. Severe dry conditions in degraded peatlands may increase peat susceptibility to fire, creating suitable conditions for peat fires to be ignited. Ground water level (GWL) has been used as a key indicator for determining fire activity in peatlands. We studied the fire situation on 2011-2012 in a portion of the ex-Mega Rice Project (MRP) area, Central Kalimantan to get better understanding of this critical issue. Further analyses using TRMM data and the changing GWL from 460 dipwells set up at Block A and E of MRP area showed a time-lag between the lowest precipitation and the lowest GWL at this area, pointing out the high risk of future fires in the area due to the loss of the peat‘s future ability for absorbing and storing water. Terra/Aqua MODIS hotspot data, combined with Landsat imagery showed that most of fires occur in areas with GWL less than-20 cm, indicating that fire is coincident with lower GWL. This result also strongly illustrates the importance of maintaining high GWL, of more than 5 cm, to reduce fire risk and prevent degraded peatlands from experiencing surface peat fires and further devastating deep peat fires.