About 600 firefighters battled dozens of forest fires in northern Quebec this week as a 200-kilometre (125-mile) wide pall of smoke crept eastward, with traces of the haze felt as far away as Washington, D.C. Using 18 aircraft and 50 helicopters under conditions so dry that water can evaporate before it hits the ground, firefighters from three provinces had managed to extinguish a dozen fires, but 10 out of 33 blazes were still out of control, Quebec forestry officials said.