This is the moment a chubby kitchen worker lowers his face mask and tries to blow out a huge oil fire with a single puff.

The unusual scene was filmed at a hotel in the city of Shenzhen in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on 16th February.

According to the news site Weibo, the oil in a pan caught fire in the hotel kitchen and the unnamed worker tried to extinguish the flames by lowering his face mask and blowing on them.

His colleague, name not reported, told local media: “He had just arrived at work, maybe he was too nervous? It was safely extinguished soon after.”

In the CCTV footage, two workers are seen preparing food as a fire breaks out in a pan at the far end of the room.

One employee tells the other to deal with the blaze and he runs over to the flaming pan and lowers his face mask.

He then takes a deep breath and blows on the flames, only helping to fan them slightly, as his stunned colleagues looks on.

The colleague instructs the bungling employee to take a different course of action, and he casually walks back before picking up the pace and jogging off screen.