  A constraint between thermal fireball parameters arises from the requirement
that the balance of strangeness in a fireball is (nearly) zero. We study the
impact of this constraint on (multi-)strange (anti-)baryon multiplicities and
compare the hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma predictions. We explore the
relation between the entropy content and particle multiplicities and show that
the data are compatible with the quark-gluon plasma hypothesis, but appear to
be inconsistent with the picture of an equilibrated hadron gas fireball. We
consider the implications of the results on the dynamics of evolution and decay
of the particle source.
