Preparations to protect Stuttgart's citizens from British air raids, though they were downplayed, were made in September 1939 with the establishment of twenty first aid stations. The 31 May 1940 issue of the local Nazi Party newspaper boasted that the Reichsluftschutzbund had taken advantage of Stuttgart's "natural physical conditions," and that no civilian fatalities were expected. In the first air raid on the city of the war on the night of 25 August 1940, four were killed and five injured. The next two raids resulted in no fatalities. As a result, Stuttgart was deemed safe enough to receive evacuees from cities already heavily damaged by British bombings such as Hamburg, Essen, and Düsseldorf.