As a new arrival to the 17th District, I probably wasn’t the best choice for this assignment.  I was assigned to  block traffic on Peterson Avenue after a request from the fire department to shut down all traffic while they battled  a raging house fire.  I quickly arrived at my post and swung the squad across Peterson blocking both Westbound lanes.  I stood by my car with flashing blue lights and disposed of the vehicle traffic down the side street.  After a few minutes I noticed that the traffic coming out of the side street looked very familiar. I had been sending the cars down the side street that ran into a culd-da-sac and they were returning in full force.  Nobody looked very happy.