Dissipation inevitably occurs in first-order phase transitions, leading to irreversible heating. Conversely, the irreversible heating effect may indicate the occurrence of the first-order phase transition. We measured the temperature change at the magnetic-field-induced alpha-theta phase transition of solid oxygen. A significant temperature increase from 13 to 37 K, amounting to 700 J/mol, due to irreversible heating was observed at the first-order phase transition. We argue that the hysteresis loss of the magnetization curve and the dissipative structural transformation account for the irreversible heating. The measurement of irreversible heating can be utilized to detect the first-order phase transition in combination with an ultrahigh magnetic fields generated in a time of mu s order.