Groups of children stopped by a house in the 1200 block of Hilltop Drive in Cape St. Claire yesterday afternoon to leave flowers and cards on the doorstep in memory of a 12-year-old girl who was killed in a fire shortly after midnight.

Heather Noll, a friend and neighbor, was looking through a pile of charred furniture and belongings in the front yard for a book of sketches drawn by the victim, Danielle Francesca Sheats.

"It's all we have to remember her," said Heather, 13, who met Danielle about a year ago when she moved to the street with her mother.

Danielle was killed in a fire that investigators think was started by a candle in the first-floor family room of the two-story house, a spokesman for Anne Arundel County Fire/EMS/Rescue said.

George Michael Martin, 33, the owner of the house, suffered serious burns when he tried to rescue Danielle, said Battalion Chief John Scholz. Martin was in critical condition at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center yesterday afternoon.

Martin and Danielle's mother, Carol E. Sheats, 32, were outside the house and conscious when firefighters arrived shortly after midnight, Scholz said. Firefighters found the girl in the family room, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Sheats was in fair condition yesterday at Johns Hopkins Bayview.

Donald Bates and David Ross, Cape St. Claire firefighters, were burned when they searched the house for the girl. They were treated at Anne Arundel Medical Center and released, Scholz said.

It took firefighters half an hour to bring the fire under control, Scholz said.

The fire, the third fatal one in the county this year, caused an estimated $80,000 in damage, Scholz said. It was not clear whether smoke detectors in the home sounded, he said.

Heather Noll said Danielle liked to draw aliens and was a good student who liked all subjects and earned mostly A's.

Sara Coker, 13, remembered Danielle as a girl who was nice to everyone, even fellow students at Magothy Middle School who made fun of her for wearing black clothes and for liking the music of rocker Marilyn Manson.

"She was cool," Sara said. "She liked Marilyn Manson music, but she liked everything that everybody else liked. She wore different clothes, but it was her own style."

The Rev. Jay O'Connor, priest at St. Andrew by the Bay Roman Catholic Church, where Danielle and her family were members, also stopped by the house.

A funeral Mass will be offered at 1 p.m. Thursday at the church, 701 College Parkway in Annapolis, O'Connor said.

Pub Date: 12/15/98