A fireball model for the March 25, 1978 gamma ray burst

It is suggested that the bulk of the gamma-ray emission in the March 25, 1978 burst comes from a fireball of photons and electron-positron pairs expanding from a jet off the polar cap of a neutron star, and that the duration of the burst is defined by the expansion and dissipation times of the fireball. This model makes it possible to determine the total energy, about 10 to the 39th ergs, and the distance, about 1kpc, of the burst and should be applicable to a large class of gamma-ray bursts.