The woman was found alive - only 90 minutes after the emergency services entered the smoke-filled apartment.
She was found by staff from Umeå who did a final search.
She is now being treated in Uppsala for serious injuries.
"The stress was palpable"
It is standard that fires with a fatal outcome are investigated.
The Vännäs fire is no exception and it is the rescue service in Luleå that investigated and found a number of shortcomings - despite the fact that the firefighters were on the scene early as the current address is two minutes from the fire station.
- The stress was palpable.
It is Friday night when the alarm goes off.
The staff rush into a smoke-filled apartment and find a dead person.
It could be an explanation that you don't think clearly in such a situation, says Roger Westerberg, rescue manager Vännäs.
Inexperienced staff
The criticism concerns, among other things, the lack of experienced staff.
The rescue service in Vännäs has also had an unclear division of roles among the staff, the investigation states.
- Now we have to review the routines, practice more and see what we can do better, says Roger Westerberg, rescue manager in Vännäs.
According to the investigation, the fire was probably started by a cigarette combined with the fact that smoke alarms were missing in the apartment.