Denver ? While an army of firefighters struggle to shield residences from Colorado’s massive wildfires, a fight has begun to protect another potential casualty: the state’s $7 billion tourism industry.

A week of apocalyptic images has sunk in across the nation towering flames leaping from tree to tree, frightened homeowners fleeing in packed cars. It appears, on television at least, that “All of Colorado is burning,” as the governor put it this week.

An air tanker drops a load of fire retardant on the Hayman wildfire near Trout Creek, Colo. The wildfire has burned more than 97,000 acres and remained out of control Friday.

Businesses in Denver take exception to that, especially as peak tourism season begins. Nearly three-fourths of the city’s 10 million visitors come during June, July and August, and city officials want the world to know that Denver is open for business.

“We can’t have people thinking, as has been reported on some national broadcasts, that the fire is at Denver’s door,” Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said this week. “The city is operating as it would on any other day. Denver is not on fire.”

Try to explain that to concerned friends and relatives around the nation, who have puzzled over maps on TV and in newspapers that seem to suggest Denver is engulfed in flames.

This, at a time when Colorado is experiencing its worst drought on record, turning green mountains to dun brown. The drought and extreme fire danger also have caused the closure of some state forests and parks, with more anticipated. By July 1, the city is expected to impose mandatory water rationing, thus condemning Denver’s lawns and parks to a sure death.

To make matters worse, fire officials estimate it could take all summer to fully extinguish the fire, which sprawls across four of the state’s most populous counties.