The blaze broke out Monday afternoon at the corner of Walnut Avenue and California Street, directly across from Winfield Elementary School.
Gorden, who has lived on the property since 1961, told Action News he was mowing high grass when a spark caught in the dry field. Within minutes, the fire spread across three acres of the property.
"By that night everything was gone," Gorden said.
Gorden, 85, acknowledged that the property had gotten away from him over the years and that he had struggled to part with his belongings.
"You have a problem hanging onto stuff you shouldn't ever hang on to," he said. "You collect stuff, and it's possibly like a sickness unto death. It's a hoarding problem."
The property has been in Gorden's family for generations, with a house built in 1948. Over the years, the county sent him repeated warnings and tried to work with him to clean up the property, which neighbors considered an eyesore.
Standing among the wreckage, Gorden said the physical belongings, the old cars, decorations, farm equipment and boxes of books, were not what he would miss most.
"Sure, pictures of all kinds. I had a few guns, some ammo," he said. "I mean, those aren't the real memories. The memories are just being there with our family."
He recalled holidays spent on the land. "And we had that Christmas here, you know," he said. "That was sort of a memory that I had."
The fire also affected the neighboring school. Winfield Elementary canceled class Thursday and Friday as the Winton School District replaced air filters, added air purifiers and sanitized classrooms after smoke made it into the building. The district plans to reopen the school Monday.
Crews cleared the property and had the fire fully out. Gorden's family says their focus now is cleaning up and figuring out what comes next for the land.
The family has set up a GoFundMe that can be found here.