California governor signs bill giving prisoners battling wildfires a shot at becoming pro firefighters - USA TODAY

Gavin Newsom passed a bill that will give prisoners battling California's massive wildfires a chance to become firefighters after their release.

California's governor passed a bill Friday that will give prisoners battling the state's massive wildfires a chance to avoid a different battle after their release: That of finding a job.

Criminal records are often a bar to employment. Newsom said he wants to give the prisoners a shot at becoming firefighters and that removing their criminal history will make that more possible.

"California inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform," Newsom said on Twitter Friday.

Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter.

California has been struggling in recent years to field enough inmate firefighters because of changes in state law that have reduced the number of lower-level offenders in state prisons.

The new law may create a new incentive, by allowing former inmate firefighters, after their release, to ask a judge to withdraw their plea of guilty

The expungement would give the former firefighters the ability to apply for any of more than 200 occupations that require a state license, an opportunity lost to most people with criminal records, according to Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes, a Democrat from San Bernardino who authored the bill