The problem was the Sweetwater County Fire District #1 had not developed a pre-incident action plan (pre-IAP) for escalating emergency responses during highway incidents. The purpose of the applied research was to develop a pre-IAP for highway incidents. Action research was selected as the most appropriate research method. In an effort to develop a pre-IAP, three research questions were developed and answered. The first question asked what laws and standards exist regarding incident action plans (IAPs) for highway incidents. The second question asked what model procedures exist to assist when developing IAPs for highway incidents. The third question asked what the benchmarks are for expanding and contracting IAPs during highway incidents. To answer these questions, an extensive literature review was completed, interviews were conducted, a questionnaire was distributed, and a focus group analyzed the issues. The results from the research indicated that numerous federal laws and standards exist and relatively few state and local laws exist. Additionally, there are several standards and model procedure guides available to provide assistance when developing IAPs. The research also found that most fire departments do not develop a pre-IAP for highway incident responses. This is most likely because most fire departments instead develop the IAP during initial incident operations rather than before the incident. The recommendations from the research indicate an IAP should follow the National Incident Management System guidance and conform with available standards and model procedure guides. The final IAP should also include an incident complexity analysis to assist the initial incident commander (IC) when establishing command and requesting additional resources. Using a pre-IAP can help the initial IC to quickly size-up a highway incident, develop an incident specific IAP, brief incident personnel, implement the action plan and evaluate the effectiveness of the plan.