Public safety officials were not surprised when temperatures plummeted Sunday evening.

They were caught off guard, however, by the timing – and so were many motorists in the city.

“We knew that the Patriots game was at 6 o’clock and we knew people would be traveling,” Cranston Police Maj. Todd Patalano said. “The forecast is that it wasn’t going to freeze over until later in the evening.”

A parking ban was issued Friday in anticipation of the storm, and advisories – including a notification through the Code Red emergency system – were sent to warn of roads quickly turning icy and dangerous after a weekend of wet weather. Patalano said the Code Road alert was sent to 39,400 people and reached 26,335.

Still, the drop arrived more quickly than anticipated.

“We had 26 motor vehicle accidents, we had 10 disabled motor vehicles and we had two fire trucks off the road, all around the same time,” Patalano said.

Route 37 was briefly closed, and Patalano said another “small pileup” occurred on New London Avenue. Two fire engines also spun out on the icy roads – one on Route 37 and the other on Scituate Avenue.

Patalano said the crashes resulted in “no major injuries based on the information that we have at this point.” He said both fire engines sustained minor damage but were otherwise unaffected.

“They’re both back in service,” he said.