Guatemalan authorities ordered evacuations Monday as the Fuego volcano erupted with increasing intensity, sending towering clouds of ash and gas into the sky and prompting officials to clear nearby communities as a precaution.The eruption began Monday morning before rapidly escalating throughout the day. Live images showed lava and fast-moving pyroclastic flows rushing down the volcano's slopes. Guatemala's National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology said the eruption had become more explosive, with lava fountains reaching between 200 and 300 meters (650 to 1,000 feet) above the crater.Authorities in Guatemala have ordered evacuations around the Fuego volcano, which is erupting (Reuters)Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of Guatemala's disaster agency CONRED, said evacuation orders were issued for El Porvenir and the hamlet of Las Lajitas, affecting about 50 families, or roughly 250 people. Authorities also declared an orange alert warning that volcanic ash could spread to nearby towns.Officials closed National Route 14, a major highway near the volcano, while the Education Ministry suspended classes in affected areas.Fuego is one of Guatemala's most active and dangerous volcanoes. A catastrophic eruption in June 2018 killed 194 people, left another 234 missing and destroyed an entire village, affecting up to 1.7 million people in what was its deadliest eruption in about 40 years.Children play as Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupts, after authorities raised the alert level to orange, as seen from San Juan Alotenango (Reuters)The 12,346-foot volcano has been in near-continuous eruption since 2002, though records of its activity date back to the 1500s. It lies about 27 miles west of Guatemala City and roughly 10 miles from the colonial city of Antigua, one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. Another eruption last June also forced precautionary evacuations.The 12,346-foot volcano has been in near-continuous eruption since 2002, though records of its activity date back to the 1500s (AFP/Getty)Guatemala is home to 37 volcanoes, although many are dormant or extinct. Fuego forms part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a vast belt of seismic and volcanic activity that contains around three-quarters of the world's active volcanoes. Scientists note, however, that volcanoes within the Ring of Fire are not directly connected, meaning one eruption does not trigger another.