A Wake County woman died in an early morning Christmas fire that gutted a Sunset Lake Road farmhouse that had been in her family for at least three generations.

Francis Bonin, described by a neighboring cousin as a 53-year-old Target employee, was found dead in a bedroom of 6505 Sunset Lake Road by Wake County firefighters who battled the fire, which was reported at 1:14 a.m., authorities said.

The destroyed home is located on a narrow dirt lane just off Sunset Lake Road in a once-rural community between Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina in southwestern Wake County.

Bonin lived alone in the white wooden house owned by her parents, Floyd and Delores Jones, who died earlier this year, said Annette Pruitt, a second cousin who owns a small horse farm next door.

"She was a very nice person -- quiet and stayed to herself," Pruitt said. "We always waved to each other -- she was going to work, and I was working in the barn. We stayed busy."

Neighbor Lee Booker, who lives at 6013 Sunset Lake Road, said Bonin returned home after working a Christmas Eve shift at a Target store. Booker said other neighbors heard two loud explosions, then saw flames leaping from Bonin's house. He was watching television at the time, didn't hear the blasts and didn't realize there was a fire until he heard sirens.

The cause of the fire was still being investigated, Wake County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens said.

When firefighters arrived at the home about 1:20 a.m., they found the carport and rear of the building had already been consumed by flames that were burning the rest of the house, she said. A body matching Bonin's description was found in the left front bedroom and was sent to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill for an autopsy.

Kevin Gerity, an assistant state medical examiner, said the body has been identified as Bonin, but the cause of death is still pending.