Flaming Doorknob Keyboards!
Ruby, 229 bytes

-&gt;s,m{c=m.flat_map.with_index{|x,i|x.size.times.select{|j|x[j]==?D}.map{|y|[i,y]}}
s.chars{|h|x='1234567890qwertyuiop*asdfghjkl*zxcvbnm'.index h
x,y=(x%10)*2,x/10
a,b=c.min_by{|a,b|(y-a).abs+((y%2&gt;0?x+1:x)-b).abs}
m[a][b]='F'}
m}


Not very good, but I just had to get the first answer in.

Slightly ungolfed / commented version:

#!/usr/bin/ruby

f = -&gt; s, m {
    # get knob coords
    c = m.flat_map.with_index {|x, i| x.size.times.select{|j| x[j] == ?D }.map{|y| [i, y] } }
    # for each char in the string
    s.chars {|h|
        # note the asterisks to correct for offsets
        x = '1234567890qwertyuiop*asdfghjkl*zxcvbnm'.index h
        # get un-"staggered" x and y coords
        x, y = (x % 10) * 2, x / 10
        # add one to x for every other row to fit keyboard
        x += 1 if y % 2 &gt; 0
        # find closest knob by Manhattan distance
        a, b = c.min_by{|a, b| (y - a).abs + (x - b).abs }
        # LIGHT IT ON FIRE!
        m[a][b] = 'F'
    }
    # return new map
    m
}

puts f['helloworld123', ['D    D       D     D', '    D', '', '              D  D']]