The fusion-born alpha-particle heating in magnetically confined fusion machines is a high priority subject for study. The self-heating of thermonuclear fusion plasma by alpha-particles was observed in recent deuterium-tritium (D-T) experiments on the Joint European Torus (JET). This observation was possible by conducting so-called “afterglow” experiments where transient high fusion yield was achieved with neutral beam injection as the only external heating source, and then termination of the heating at peak performance. This allowed the first direct evidence for electron heating of plasmas by fusion-born alphas to be obtained. Transport modelling of the relevant D-T and reference deuterium discharges is consistent with the alpha-particle heating observation.