BROWNING, Mont. (AP) - A pair of rare winter wildfires fueled by 60 mph gusts burned buildings and forced hundreds from their homes overnight on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation, but better weather conditions on Thursday helped firefighters get a handle on the blazes.

The grass fires started around sundown Wednesday and together grew to 16,000 acres by early Thursday, said tribal spokesman Wayne Smith. At least 300 people were evacuated from homes and a boarding school, though no injuries had been reported.

"It's probably the biggest grass fire in reservation history," Smith said. "It was just a wall of fire heading east."

Smith estimated between 10 and 15 buildings were damaged or destroyed on the northwestern Montana reservation east of Glacier National Park. Fire incident commander Robert LaPlant confirmed Thursday evening that one home had been destroyed but did not yet know the total number of structures damaged.

J.R. Clark, a rancher who lives off Boarding School Road north of Browning, the site of the larger fire, said he and a hired hand ignored the mandatory evacuation order and stayed to fight the blaze.

"I said, 'You're going to have to throw me in jail because I'm not leaving,"' Clark said. "I had to save my ranch."

The two of them used a tractor with an attached plow to attack the fire as it approached the main house.

After working from 6 p.m. until 3 a.m., the danger had passed. They were able to save Clark's house and another one across the highway, but a neighbor's house was destroyed, as was one of Clark's barns.

"It came up and jumped out of the river and down the hill and burned it down. There was nothing anybody could do to stop it," Clark said.